Lawmakers look to long-term budget talks

WASHINGTON - Having dodged the immediate threat of a government shutdown, congressional Republican leaders are looking ahead to talks with President Obama on a long-term budget pact.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said Tuesday that he and House Speaker John A. Boehner spoke with Obama recently and that he expects talks to get underway soon.

McConnell spoke as the Senate wraps up a debate he engineered on a temporary spending bill that would keep the government open while the negotiations stretch through the fall. The measure, expected to clear the House and Senate just hours before a midnight Wednesday deadline, would keep the government running through Dec. 11.

At issue are efforts to increase the operating budgets for both the Pentagon and domestic agencies still under automatic spending curbs that would effectively freeze their budgets at current levels. Republicans are leading the drive to boost defense while Obama is demanding equal relief for domestic programs.

Boehner's resignation announcement on Friday followed unrest by arch conservatives in his conference who wanted to use the pending stopgap spending bill to try to force Democrats to take federal funding away from Planned Parenthood.

Instead, Boehner and McConnell opted for a bipartisan measure that steers clear of the furor over Planned Parenthood.

Wednesday's scheduled vote comes after a 77-19 tally on Monday easily beat a token filibuster threat.