WASHINGTON — There was little talk Monday at a House-Senate budget conference meeting about a sweeping fiscal deal that would raise annual defense spending levels.

Members of a bicameral conference committee tasked with coming up with a compromise 2016 budget blueprint met for the first time, but there were few calls for what's often called on Capitol Hill a "Ryan-Murray II" deal.

There is talk about trying to push through both chambers later this year a fiscal bill that would mirror the 2012 budget resolution crafted by then-House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., and then-Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash.

That bill provided two years of relief from spending caps for defense and domestic programs. A Ryan-Murray II would do the same.

For more than 90 minutes of the public hearing, House and Senate conferees focused on each party's long-held priorities and favorite political piñatas.

Republicans blasted federal domestic spending levels as dangerously high, claimed their resolutions are "balanced," called for additional deficit shrinkage, and lambasted Obamacare. Democrats hammered the chambers' GOP-written budget resolutions for cutting many domestic programs, and questioned how the measures could include Obamacare in some long-term estimates while also calling for its complete repeal.

Few, however, called for the House and Senate later this year to take up a Ryan-Murray II bill.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., said the United States faces many challenges around the globe. But he did not mention raising spending caps that in fiscal 2016 would cap restrict base military spending at to $499 billion.

House Budget Committee Ranking Democrat Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, a 2016 Senate candidate, read aloud from a Republican-crafted report that last year called increasing the Pentagon's overseas contingency operations (OCO) account to offset the spending caps a bad idea.

Both chambers' 2016 budget resolutions increase that war account by around $40 billion to appease defense hawks and secure their votes on the budget resolution.

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Senate Budget Committee member Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., also an Armed Services Committee member, applauded that increase. She also urged her colleagues to include the inflated war account in the final budget resolution.

But the first call for a follow-on Ryan-Murray II deal was not uttered until about 90 minutes into the session.

That's when Senate Budget Committee member Tim Kaine, D-Va., called on the conference committee to produce a "serious" final spending blueprint.

To Kaine, any "serious" measure would include a Ryan-Murray sequel, and would address what many see as a shortfall in annual Pentagon spending.

Other conferees, like Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., also an Armed Services member, expressed concerns about using the OCO account to give the Pentagon more funds, even if those monies are not used for things directly related to ongoing conflicts.

Sessions called for lawmakers to "think of other ways" to increase the annual military budget.

email: jbennett@defensenews.com

Twitter:@bennettjohnt

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