Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced Thursday the upper chamber is preparing to pass a stopgap funding bill next week to avert a partial government shutdown, even as some hardline Republicans have agitated in favor of forcing one.
“Unfortunately, it has become crystal clear that it will take more than a week to finish the appropriation process,” Schumer, 73, said on the Senate floor days after announcing a $1.66 trillion spending framework deal with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
Schumer went on to call out “hard-right extremists” in the lower chamber who he said were trying to “bully their colleagues” into forcing some government departments to go dark at 11:59 p.m. Jan. 19 — and celebrated the “compromise” he and Johnson reached.
Schumer said he will file cloture on the temporary funding bill on Thursday, setting up a vote Jan. 16, when the Senate returns after Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The topline funding package has rankled House conservatives, with Freedom Caucus Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) and others pressuring Johnson in his office on Thursday to pull out of the deal with Schumer.
The agreent, which would extend until the end of the 2024 fiscal year on Sept. 30, appropriates $888 billion for defense spending and $704 billion in non-defense discretionary spending — but adds another $69 billion in other spending, making it more expensive than last year’s debt ceiling bill.
The speaker emerged from the meeting saying he had made “no commitments” and was still speaking with different factions of his conference about options.
On Wednesday, Johnson had celebrated the deal in an interview with Fox News, touting his record as “a conservative hardliner” committed to “cutting spending.”
“We’re trying to get back to 12 appropriations bills instead of ruling and governing by omnibus spending bills. We’ve done that,” he said on “The Story with Martha MacCallum,” referring to Congress passing two funding bills before the holiday recess that will expire on Jan. 19 and Feb. 2.
“We are adding another $16 billion in cuts. We’re taking $10 billion out of the IRS slush fund, another $6.1 billion out of the COVID slush funds. These are big priorities for the Democrats. We’ve added that in.”
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), another Freedom Caucus member, called the deal “terrible” on Sunday after it was announced — and hasn’t ruled out the option of moving to vacate Johnson’s speakership if changes weren’t made.
With the recent departure of multiple Republicans, including former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the GOP House majority has shrunk to just two votes, leaving Johnson little room for leverage in negotiations with his conference.
The speaker also told Fox News he was “frustrated” that the spending deal didn’t “go far enough,” but noted Democratic control of the White House and Senate had limited his ability to secure cuts.
“I mean, this is not the Hail Mary pass that I’d like to, to throw to win the game. This is, as we used to say in football, this is yard by yard, inch by inch, three yards and a cloud of dust,” Johnson said.
Senate Republicans and Democrats are separately deliberating over a $110 billion national security supplemental spending bill that would fund aid Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan as well as increased US border security, but have yet to announce a deal.
“Right now, the Senate is close to an opportunity to finally do something meaningful to address the Biden administration’s border crisis,” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday on the Senate floor.
“Our work this month is the clearest possible test of America’s credibility as a global superpower, as the leader of allies and as the nation capable of upholding our own sovereignty. The Senate simply must not fail this test.”