With just five days until government funding expires Friday at midnight, it appears increasingly unlikely that Congress will reach a comprehensive deal on how much and where to allocate money for fiscal year 2023 by their set deadline.
That means lawmakers will likely pass yet another continuing resolution by the end of this week, giving them temporary funding – and slightly more time – to agree on a final package.
Democrats had originally planned to release their version of an omnibus proposal – one without Republican input – on Monday, with an aide for Senate appropriations chair Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. telling Fox News that enough negotiations took place over the weekend to warrant delaying their proposal in favor of more behind-the-scenes discussions.
In turn, Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the weekend conversations “positive and productive,” saying Monday “members should be prepared to take quick action on a [continuing resolution] — a one-week CR, so we can give appropriators more time to finish a full funding bill before the holidays.”
“I am optimistic we could take action on a CR rather quickly and avoid the shutdown that neither side wants,” he added.
Over the weekend, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters that Democrats and Republicans remain roughly $26 billion apart in their proposals. Many Republicans have stressed the need to prioritize defense spending over other agenda items, arguing Democrats have already spent enough on domestic programs through the last coronavirus relief bill and the Inflation Reduction Act.
“Our Democratic colleagues have already spent two years massively, massively increasing domestic spending using party-line reconciliation bills outside the normal appropriations process,” Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the Senate Minority Leader, said on the chamber floor Monday.
Should Congress instead settle for short-term bill to fund the goverment into 2023, President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats would have to negotiate the full budget with a Republican-led House of Representatives that takes over in January.
At least six Senate Republicans penned a letter to McConnell urging him to support a continuing resolution and kick the final omnibus deal to the next Congress.
“For the Senate to ram through a so-called ‘omnibus’ bill—which would fund the entirety of the Pelosi-Schumer spending agenda through most of next year—would utterly disempower the new Republican House from enacting our shared priorities,” the letter read in part.
Some Democrats, who are seeking to increase spending on domestic priorities while also including funding for the U.S. military, balked at that suggestion.
“What I worry about is Republican efforts to hold hostage next year, if we don’t get an omnibus bill passed, to hold hostage the government in order to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. “And that, I will vigorously oppose.”
The White House on Monday encouraged lawmakers to “get a bipartisan deal done,” with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre telling reporters: “We believe there’s enough time to get that done.”
“This is something that clearly Congress was able to do this time last year in a bipartisan way,” Jean-Pierre added. “But if they need extra days to get there, so be it. We’ve got to remember this is not a partisan issue.”
Beyond keeping the government open and running, lawmakers are also deciding whether to include a laundry list of priorities in this year-end package – including additional aid to Ukraine, legislation to allow banks to serve cannabis companies, and immigration reform that would provide a pathway to citizenship for young undocumented immigrants.
