BATON ROUGE - Striking a conciliatory tone, House lawmakers started advancing a new multibillion-dollar construction budget after tanking the Senate's version in the waning minutes of the regular legislative session.

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Neil Abramson was largely blamed for the House's refusal to pass the $4 billion budget bill.

On Tuesday, as lawmakers began a special session, Abramson met with still-bristling Senate leaders. And he quickly moved a similar bill out of his committee.

The panel agreed to the construction budget, called capital outlay, without objection, sending it to the full House for debate.

To explain the delay, Abramson and House Speaker Taylor Barras said Senate changes put the bill in such disarray that it needed an overnight rewrite. Senators accused the House of refusing to negotiate over the bill Monday.