Bloomberg - House Leaders Weigh U.S. Spending Bill Below $1 Trillion

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"It's a serious cut," Lankford, a member of the House Budget Committee said in an interview. "That's significant."

Lankford said House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, is running through all possible scenarios as two fiscal deadlines near. Automatic spending cuts stemming from an impasse between the White House and Congress over deficit reduction take effect on March 1, and the continuing resolution funding U.S. government operations expires on March 27.

A House stopgap budget that called for deep spending cuts through the end of the 2013 fiscal year would have difficulty winning approval in the Democratic-controlled Senate, posing the threat of a government shutdown when the current resolution expires.

House Republican leaders are probing for ways to extract spending cuts from the White House and Senate Democrats as the fiscal deadlines approach.

Automatic Cuts

The stopgap spending bill being considered would be at lower levels because House Republicans are working under the expectation that automatic spending reductions, known as sequestration, will take effect March 1.

The automatic spending cuts of about $1.2 trillion over the next decade would lower the fiscal year 2013 budget authority to $974 billion, Lankford said.

The House may end up replacing the stopgap funding measure later in the year should the House and the Senate agree on ways to replace the automatic spending cuts, half of which would come out of the defense budget, Lankford said.

"Hopefully we'll find some better resolution," Lankford said. He said the preferred approach would be "something more strategic," such as a budget blueprint that "has a plan of where we are going to go long term."

House Republican leaders, weakened by President Barack Obama's re-election and Democratic gains in the House and Senate in November's election, are resigned to accepting the automatic cuts rather than risking a deal with Obama that would mean higher taxes. Democrats see little political benefit in accepting Republican offers to forestall the reductions in exchange for cuts to entitlement programs such as Medicare.

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