NATION : Congress Urged to Craft Budget

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Senate Budget Committee said today that Congress must craft its own 1991 budget because the Bush Administration isn’t giving it serious attention.

Sen. Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.) told the committee that he hopes to draft a $1.2-trillion budget by having members consider at least three alternatives with deficit reductions ranging from $50 billion to $37 billion.

Sen. Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico, the senior Republican on the panel, promised to cooperate but said he doesn’t think Sasser’s strategy will work.

“The missing link is the President of the United States,” he said.

But Sasser said, “At this point, at least, the Administration isn’t serious” about the budget. “I have very severe doubts that negotiations with the White House are the way to go,” he said.

Before today’s meeting, Sasser had worked for weeks without success to find a consensus among the 10 Republicans and 13 Democrats on the committee for a deficit-reduction plan.