House to Vote on Own Budget Package for ’86 : $967-Billion Measure Expected to Pass in Face of Stalemate With Senate

The Democratic-controlled House, in the face of a continued House-Senate budget stalemate, expects to pass a resolution today pledging to live within the guidelines of the budget proposal it passed earlier this year.

“We will not let Senate intransigence paralyze the budget process or the machinery of government,” House Majority Leader Jim Wright (D-Tex.) said Tuesday.

But other Democrats acknowledged that the proposal today also would offer political cover from the charge that the House shares the blame for failing to deal with a deficit that is expected to exceed $200 billion a year for the foreseeable future.

$56 Billion in Savings

The House budget package claims $56 billion in deficit reduction in fiscal 1986, but Senate Republicans contend that those savings are inflated with spending cuts that will never materialize. The House plan budgets $967 billion in federal spending for 1986.

Meanwhile, six weeks after House and Senate negotiators began their efforts to fashion a budget compromise, Senate leaders said they are no closer to bringing the two sides back to the bargaining table with a counteroffer to the latest House proposal.

Senate rejection of that House offer, which senators said made inadequate cuts in domestic spending, brought budget negotiations to a halt last week.

The budget is likely to be a leading topic at a White House meeting today between President Reagan and congressional leaders from both houses. Their last session produced what they called a budget “framework” in which Reagan withdrew his support from a Senate proposal to deny next year’s Social Security benefit increases in exchange for a House agreement to allow defense spending authority to grow.

Difficulty Increased

But, by abandoning efforts to hold down spending growth in both those areas, they made it even more difficult, many believe, for House and Senate conferees to come up with an overall spending blueprint that makes a significant dent in the deficit.

Rep. Butler Derrick (D-S.C.), a House budget negotiator, said the framework agreement “messed things up to begin with . . . (and) put us in the position where we don’t have any room for bargaining.”

Separately, the Senate once again voted against cutting off a filibuster blocking a bill that would grant presidents the authority to veto individual items within spending bills that are passed by Congress and sent to the White House. The Constitution requires that the President accept or veto entire bills.

Reagan Lobbying

Reagan has lobbied vigorously for the so-called line-item veto, saying it would provide him with an important tool to reduce the deficit. But opponents in Congress contend it could be used instead for political leverage.

In a repeat of last week’s effort, sponsors of the bill fell three votes short of the 60 they need to cut off debate.