The leaders of the Senate Budget Committee unveiled legislation Tuesday that would require the next Congress to address the long-term budget strain associated with Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs.

The bill would create a 16-member task force that would make recommendations by Dec. 9, 2008, on how to address soaring costs of programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. The bill calls for the recommendations to be introduced as legislation in the 111th Congress, and both chambers would have to consider it soon after that Congress convenes in January 2009. Debate would be limited, and the proposal could not be amended. It would require a three-fifths majority vote in both chambers to pass.

The legislation was unveiled Tuesday by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the panel’s ranking Republican. The task force would be charged with looking at all aspects of the budget, including tax policy. “Everything is on the table,” said Conrad, D-N.D.

“We tried to take the politics out the runup to this work,” Conrad said, by putting off the task force’s recommendations until after the 2008 elections.

Conrad said he was not sure if the Budget Committee would mark up the legislation or whether he and Gregg would try to take it straight to the Senate floor. Gregg and Conrad said they had briefed the Senate leadership and several members.

House Budget Committee Chairman John M. Spratt Jr., D-S.C., and Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, that panel’s ranking Republican, have not said whether they plan to introduce similar legislation.