{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://cole.house.gov/hill-no-sign-progress-budget-conference", "The Hill: No sign of progress from budget conference", "2013-11-13", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "OK", "Tom Cole", "C001053", "cole.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "The Hill - Erik Wasson There was no sign of progress toward a congressional budget deal as the new House-Senate budget conference met for the second time on Wednesday.  \n\t\u00a0  \n\tRepublicans and Democrats are trying to forge a deal by Dec. 13 that at least replaces some automatic sequester cuts and sets a spending limit for the rest of the year in order to avoid a shutdown in January. The House and Senate are $91 billion apart in their spending levels for 2014 and more fundamentally divided on the role new revenue should play in replacing the sequestration cuts. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) opened the meeting by disclosing that they have had private conversations on the parameters of the deal, but they said there was no concrete movement forward.  \n\t\u00a0  \n\t\u201cWe are not there yet,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cThere is a big gap between our two budgets ... we have spent a lot of time talking about our differences.\u201d  \n\t\u00a0  \n\t\u201cOur budgets are dramatically different,\u201d Murray said.  \n\t\u00a0  \n\tShe claimed that she has been \u201cencouraged by those conversations\u201d with Ryan. But when asked about the basis for optimism, she was vague.  \n\t\u00a0  \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s based on the fact that we all know we\u2019ve got a short time frame and we\u2019ve got to come to some decisions and we\u2019re talking,\u201d she said.  \n\t\u00a0  \n\tMurray has insisted, including in a weekend op-ed in The Washington Post, that closing \u201cegregious\u201d tax loopholes be part of any deal. Ryan has said higher taxes should not be part of the equation.  \n\t\u00a0  \n\tRyan\u2019s point was echoed by many of the other Republicans during the second budget conference meeting, which featured a discussion of U.S. debt and employment with Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf.  \n\t\u00a0  The slow pace of the talks is clearly frustrating appropriators on the panel. Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) beseeched his colleagues to come to a deal quickly to allow the spending panel to craft a detailed spending package before the government shuts down after Jan. 15.  \n\t\u00a0  \n\tPanelist and Appropriations Committee ranking member Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) said there is \u201cconcern among all of us that we won\u2019t be able to complete our work.\u201d  \n\t\u00a0  \n\t\u201cReaching a number by Dec. 13 is absolutely doable. We should get in a room and get that done,\u201d she said.  \n\t\u00a0  Cole called for a deal by Thanksgiving recess, which he noted is nine days away.\n\t\u00a0\n\t\u201cThis is a matter of some urgency,\u201d he said. Cole asked Elmendorf to draft a list of overlapping proposals in the Senate and House budgets.  \n\t\u00a0  \n\tRyan responded that he and Murray were already looking at those. Online: The Hill", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://cole.house.gov/hill-no-sign-progress-budget-conference"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5935827977955341, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}