Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) announced a budget deal Tuesday evening that would call for about $1 trillion in federal spending in 2014 while replacing some sequestration cuts.
The deal replaces $63 billion in sequester cuts over two years and trims an additional $23 billion in long-term deficits.
{mosads}The agreement falls far short of the grand budget bargain Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and President Obama once envisioned. But if passed, it will bring a measure of fiscal peace to the capital for the first time since Republicans took control of the House in 2010.
“This deal doesn’t solve all of our problems, but I think it is an important step to heal some of the wounds here in Congress,” Murray said in a joint press conference with Ryan at the Capitol.
Ryan, the architect of House Republican budget proposals in recent years, called the agreement “a step in the right direction” and defended the deal as consistent with conservative principles. He noted that it reduced the deficit by $23 billion without raising taxes and said it was the first budget agreement with divided government in Washington since 1986.
“In divided government, you can’t always get what you want,” Ryan said.