Boehner: OK to swap agency budget boosts for cuts elsewhere in the budget

House Speaker John Boehner says he'd welcome a bipartisan move to replace budget cuts to domestic agencies and the Pentagon with cuts elsewhere in the government's almost $4 trillion budget.

Such a move, backed by Democrats and pragmatic-minded Republicans alike, would reprise an approach taken two years ago to replace automatic budget cuts known as sequestration that have alarmed both defense hawks and supporters of domestic programs like health research and space exploration.

House Republicans last month passed a fiscal blueprint that called for easing spending caps that would have effectively frozen the Pentagon's budget but left in place limits that are crimping domestic programs.

The 2016 budget year begins Oct. 1. Boehner said he'd welcome negotiations before then; the 2013 compromise came only after a 16-day partial government shutdown.