Senators attempting to stave off cuts in rural air control, furloughs and closures in meatpacking

Some proposed amendments to the bill to keep the government running would keep rural air-traffic control towers open and avoid furloughs of meat inspectors (and thus temporary plant closures), but "There is a fear that if too many accommodations are made by the Senate, it risks a blowup with the House and exactly the sort of shutdown fight both parties want to avoid on March 27 when funding runs out," David Rogers reports for Politico. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the list of 100 amendments to the continuing resolution needs to be substantially reduced to get a vote on the bill Monday.

Blunt, Pryor (Bill Clark, Getty Images)

Republicans have been most prominent in seeking relief. Sen. Jerry Moran wants to shift $50 million to protect contract air-traffic control towers important to rural states like his own Kansas," Rogers writes. "And with major meatpacking houses in both states, Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas has teamed with his Republican neighbor, Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, to try to add $55 million to the current Senate bill to shore up the Food Safety and Inspection Service." They would get $30 million of the money by deferring maintenance on Agriculture Department buildings, and $25 million "from a new grant program favored by the White House to help schools buy equipment for school breakfast programs."

Rogers gives details on the FSIS budget and mentions two other rural issues: "The House adds significantly more than the Senate for wildland fire management in the Interior Department and Forest Service. The Senate does more than the House for the Indian Health Service. (Read more)