Kaine, Warner support budget compromise

The new federal budget compromise represents a step forward for Hampton Roads, which relies on a predictable flow of defense spending, but it doesn't solve larger debates over taxes and spending, Virginia's two senators said Tuesday.

Negotiators late Monday released a 144-page bill that broadly describes federal spending over the next two fiscal years. Its passage is expected, according to multiple media reports, but that is not the final step.

Lawmakers on budget-writing committees will then use that document as a guide to write spending bills that Congress will consider in December.

Still, the idea that Congress struck a bipartisan spending deal gave Sens.Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine optimism.

Warner characterized it as a "burst of sanity," and Kaine said he was "quite pleased." Both Democrats said political minefields could lie in wait. Some Republican conservatives in the House are upset with the deal, and they could try to attach provisions to those December spending bills to complicate the debate.

Without the compromise, the Defense Department was facing the prospect of doing business under strict spending caps imposed by theBudget Control Act of 2011. President Obama requested $38 billion above those caps for defense in 2016. The compromise provides $33 billion, so the Pentagon stands to get much of what it wanted.

Because the spending bills haven't been drafted, it's difficult to say exactly how the compromise would affect the military and defense contractors in Hampton Roads.

However, given extra money to work with, Kaine said he's confident lawmakers can devise an acceptable plan.

"The deal has to be converted into appropriations bills," he said, "but I think the additional room created should make that task much simpler than it was before."

He also likes two-year spending bills, which is how Virginia state government operates. Kaine, like Warner, is a former Virginia governor.

Congress is facing a mid-December deadline to pass a budget. Absent a budget deal, lawmakers would have to consider passing a continuing resolution that freezes spending. Or they could hit total gridlock and do nothing, which would prompt a partial government shutdown. Either scenario would cause problems for Hampton Roads, officials have said.

Warner said he was sorry that it took the resignation of House Speaker John Boehner to help spur the deal, adding, "the long-term challenge has not gone away. We still need to do the broader bargain around entitlement reform and tax reform."

Kaine agreed that a larger debate was ahead, but said this deal shows progress is possible without coming up against an 11th-hour deadline.

"That's a step toward certainty," he said, "and a positive thing."