Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) appeared to suggest on Friday that Congress was headed toward a government shutdown this fall amid a contentious appropriations fight that has seen the House and Senate write and pass funding bills at different spending levels.
Coons's comment came at the end of a panel discussion at this year's Aspen Security Forum alongside Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Jim Risch (R-ID) as the trio debated how to address Sen. Tommy Tuberville's (R-AL) hold on military promotions in protest of the Pentagon's abortion policy. The Delaware senator, who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, argued that while congressional antics may cause concern, there are bipartisan coalitions in the House and Senate that are capable of solving tough problems.
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"I'm just going to close with this thought. We are going to scare the hell out of you. We're really good at that," Coons said. "On the debt ceiling, on default, we came right up to the end. We're going to have a government shutdown because we're going to fight between the House and Senate about appropriations."
"Maybe," Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, quickly remarked.
"Maybe — I sure hope not. We keep coming right up close," Coons, who also serves on the foreign relations committee, then replied. "But in the end, it is exactly these kinds of gentlemen with whom I am able to work and where we are able to continue to deliver sustained, strong, forward-leaning initiatives around strengthening our country or defense, our military, our manufacturing, and our system. And it's really only because of the personal relationships that are at the core of the Senate that we're still able to work."
House and Senate appropriators have marked up government funding bills at different spending levels for months. The federal government runs out of money on Sept. 30, and the House and Senate each have fewer than 30 in-session days between now and then to find a resolution in order to prevent a government shutdown.
On the Senate side, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-WA) and ranking member Susan Collins (R-ME) have been advancing the 12 annual appropriations bills using spending levels agreed upon as part of President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) deal to avert a debt default in May.
This is aside from their defense appropriations bill, which Murray announced on Thursday would be marked up above the debt ceiling deal caps. The decision to boost defense numbers marks the first time Senate appropriators have broken with the agreed-upon spending caps.
The House Appropriations Committee, meanwhile, voted last month to adopt discretionary spending levels at $1.47 trillion for fiscal 2024, about $120 billion under the $1.59 trillion mark initially negotiated in the debt limit agreement.
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McCarthy's four-vote majority leaves him with little room for defections within his conference, though he already has upward of 20 members demanding appropriators write their 12 bills at fiscal 2022 spending levels.
Tensions over the debt limit agreement ground House business to a halt for a week in June as a group of hard-line conservatives, many of whom held up McCarthy's bid to become speaker, insisted he recommit to a deal he cut in January to pursue deep spending reductions. The speaker acquiesced in order to lift their blockade on floor votes, putting the two chambers fundamentally at odds.