Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are struggling to reach a deal to fund the government as the clock ticks towards Friday’s midnight deadline to stop a shutdown – and the bickering may continue past Christmas.
In order to keep the government’s lights on, lawamkers may have to pass a shorterm resolution to get past Saturday’s deadline as they work to hash out a broader full-year funding deal.
The question is how long that shorterm spending bill, know as a Continuing Resolution (or CR), will be. Lawmakers could make it as short as a week or extend it into the new year.
Complicating matters is the upcoming change in power – Republicans take the majority in the House when the new session of Congress begins on January 3rd.
Democrats – led by Senator Chuck Schumer (above) and Republicans are struggling to come to a government funding deal ahead of Friday’s midnight deadline to stop a shutdown
House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy is urging Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell to stay away from the negotiating table until their party takes control in the lower chamber, when they will wield more power in the talks.
Democrats control both chambers of Congress at the moment but Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer needs 10 Republican votes to move a funding measure forward in the legislative process.
McCarthy wants Senate Republicans to hold off.
‘We’re 28 days away from Republicans having the gavel. We would be stronger in every negotiation,’ McCarthy said in a Dec. 5 interview on Fox News. ‘Wait till we’re in charge.’
Some Senate Republicans agree with him.
‘Let’s pass a CR that will allow a Republican House to pass a more fiscally responsible spending bill early next year,’ tweeted GOP Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin on Friday.
The idea has Democrats worried, however,
Senator Bernie Sanders said he is concerned Republicans will hold government funding ‘hostage’ in order to make cuts to social programs.
‘Clearly, what I worry about is Republican efforts to hold hostage next year, if we don’t get an omnibus bill passed, to hold – hold hostage the government in order to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And that, I will vigorously oppose,’ he said Sunday on CNN.
At issue is the top-line spending number that will fund the federal government through the end of the current fiscal year.
Democrats and Republicans still haven’t agreed on what that figure will be.
Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the ranking Republican member on the Senate Appropriations Committee, has said the two sides are roughly $26 billion apart in the more than $1.5 trillion spending package.
With no longterm deal in sight, officials may be working until Christmas Eve and into the New Year.
House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (left) is urging Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (right) to stay away from the negotiating table until their party takes control in House on January 3rd
If lawmakers can’t come to a deal they could pass a CR that would fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year but that would keep spending at current levels – which wouldn’t give Democrats the increase in social spending they want and Republicans wouldn’t get the defense spending they want.
Otherwise the federal government would close down nonessential services and start federal worker furloughs.
It happened four years ago in what became a record 35-day shutdown in government services that nearly resulted in the closing of major airports on the East Coast.
This year, Republicans want to lower spending on social programs and argue that bills like President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan and the $750 billion health care, tax and climate bill known as the Inflation Reduction Act have made inflation worse.
‘Our commander-in-chief and his party have spent huge sums on domestic priorities outside the normal appropriations process without a penny for the Defense Department. Obviously, we won’t allow them to now hijack the government funding process, too, and take our troops hostage for even more liberal spending,’ McConnell said on the Senate floor on Thursday.
Democrats counter they were necessary to help the country recover from the pandemic.
And they say those earlier bills should not mean less money for domestic spending in the new budget.
In a sign of progress over the weekend, Democrats decided not to produce their own version of a spending bill. Republicans had seen that as a threat.
Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, reversed course on Sunday night, saying ‘sufficient progress’ was made in the bipartisan talks.
‘Chairman Leahy feels that sufficient progress in negotiations took place over the weekend to delay the introduction of the omnibus appropriations bill for the time being,’ a Senate Democratic aide told Reuters. ‘Bipartisan and bicameral negotiations continue.’
Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, decided not to release a Democratic spending bill – a sign negotiations went well over the weekend
Tied to the funding measure is an election overhaul bill designed to avoid another January 6th, which Senate leaders want to attach to the omnibus package that funds the government.
Also this week, the Senate is likely to take up the annual defense authorization bill after the House approved it last week.
This year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes $847 billion for the Defense Department and roughly $30 billion for nuclear activities in the Department of Energy. It also includes a 4.6 per cent pay raise for the troops.
The House passed the bill in a bipartisan 350-80 vote on Thursday.
