The president meets Wednesday with Senate Democrats, as the budget committee there and in the House of Representatives begin "marking up" budget resolutions, which form the framework for appropriations and other important legislation.
VOA: standard.2009.03.24
White House officials have designed their budget proposal to fall somewhere between the budgetresolutions recently advanced in the House and Senate.
House Republicans and Senate Democrats already have passed budgetresolutions, meaning the long-delayed White House proposal can be viewed as a political document aimed at influencing deficit-reduction discussions.
They will accomplish only one thing: Legislation passed earlier this year required the House and Senate to pass budgetresolutions before April 15 or lawmakers would have their pay docked.