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WASHINGTON (AP) Divisions among Republicans over a budget deal and a shortfall in tax estimates are complicating the House GOP's efforts to advance a spending plan this spring.

Party leaders insist the GOP-controlled House is moving full speed ahead to approve one, but it has fallen behind schedule amid concerns there will be enough votes to pass it.

"That's our intent," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, when asked this month whether GOP leaders would bring a budget to the floor this year.

Doubts exist because Republicans are split by a bipartisan deal from December between the chairman of the House Budget Committee, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and his Senate counterpart Patty Murray, D-Wash. The deal set the spending cap for the 2015 budget year at levels higher than those imposed by a budget and debt agreement from 2011.

Sixty-two House Republicans voted against the Ryan-Murray deal, mostly because they favored lower spending. Most would have to change course and vote in favor of the higher numbers that Ryan has signaled he will use. Democrats who supplied the votes required to pass the December deal probably would not back a Ryan-written budget that reprises future cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and other programs.

The Ryan-Murray cap on spending for the budget year that begins Oct. 1 is $18 billion higher than permitted by the 2011 budget deal and the automatic spending cuts it put in place.

There's no real need to do a congressional budget if the spending cap is already set. Under Capitol Hill's arcane budget process, the rest of the budget resolution is mostly nonbinding. But it does provide a vehicle for the majority party to set forth its budget and tax priorities and make promises to voters.

"I'm planning on writing one," said Ryan, the GOP's vice presidential nominee in 2012.

Ryan, however, demurred when asked if it will get a vote in the full House.

House Majority leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., announced Friday in an email to Republicans that the House would vote on Ryan's budget in April and that it would promise to be in balance in 10 years despite starting off with the Ryan-Murray figure for 2015.

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Budget Writing Divides House Republicans

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March 14, 2014: Former Massachusetts GOP Sen. Scott Brown in Nashua, N.H.AP

Washington Republicans say they are now competitive in more than a dozen states this year in their quest to take control of the Senate, as they and outside supporters continue to highlight problems with ObamaCare and the Democratic incumbents who backed the law.

Kansas GOP Sen. Jerry Moran, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told reporters Friday his party has strong credible candidates in races in 10, 11, 12, 13 states."

"The map and opportunities have expanded dramatically in a year, in part because of the consequences of the Affordable Care Act," he said on a conference call that marked the fourth anniversary of President Obamas Affordable Care Act.

Meanwhile, conservative groups such as Americans for Prosperity are reportedly pouring million into races in which Democratic incumbents have supported ObamaCare.

Republican must pick up six seats to win control of the upper chamber. But until recently, they have set their sights mostly on a handful of largely conservative or Southern states in which Democratic incumbents are backing the law, including Alaska, Arkansas, Michigan, North Carolina and Louisiana.

Now, several other solid opportunities -- including races in Colorado and New Hampshire -- have emerged to give Republicans an expanded map and a better chance of winning control of the Senate.

In Colorado, for example, the Republican National Committee is adding more than a dozen staffers as a new candidate and sagging poll numbers for Democrats raise GOP hopes of ending the party's decade-long drought on top-of-the-ticket wins in the state.

The additions come after Republicans got a top-tier recruit -- GOP Rep. Cory Gardner --- to challenge Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Udall.

The RNC is hiring 11 new field workers, a director of Hispanic outreach and two additional Hispanic field staffers, as the GOP also contends for the governors seat. That will increase the party's national staff in the perennial political swing state to 20. The RNC will also open 12 field offices statewide, party officials said.

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Republicans now see opportunity in more than a dozen 2014 Senate races