Congressional leaders are still negotiating an end-of-year extension that would punt government funding decisions until next year, and are hoping to avoid time-consuming pitfalls along the way.
Leaders in the House and Senate have until Dec. 20 to craft and pass a short-term funding patch to keep the government afloat over the holiday season, but have still not agreed on a final product.
While many lawmakers do not like resorting to another “continuing resolution” to keep the government open, they prefer that option over the typical colossal, catch-all omnibus spending package that crams all 12 spending bills, along with other proposals and spending wishlist items, into one measure.
Still, the impending stopgap bill could see some spending priorities tacked on. A fight is simmering over attaching President Biden’s nearly $100 billion disaster aid request to the legislation.
Hardline Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus have vowed to not support a funding patch with the disaster aid if it is not offset.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, met with the caucus earlier this week to discuss their concerns, and later told reporters that he was going through the request “line by line” to ensure that the money was actually going to aid people affected by hurricanes Milton and Helene.
“We have a huge national debt, and we have obligations to take care of, but we have to do that in a fiscally responsible manner,” he said.
Adding a pay-for, or moving around money to pay for the disaster bill, could win over members of the hardline faction.
“I think that if you include a pay-for, it does change the dialogue,” said Rep. Eric Burlison, Missouri Republican and Freedom Caucus member. “Because I think he probably will win over most, if not all, of the Freedom Caucus.”
But appropriators, who are not involved in the negotiations to hammer out another stopgap bill, are skeptical as to where the money would come from.
Rep. Mike Simpson, who chairs the Interior and Environment Appropriations subcommittee, said that all congressional leaders really need to do is extend the current stopgap into next year, and wondered where they would find the money to offset Mr. Biden’s disaster aid request.
“I’d be interested to hear what they had to say about where they’re going to find it,” said Mr. Simpson, Idaho Republican.
The impending stopgap could also be a vehicle for a one-year extension to the farm bill, which was extended last year. One line item that likely won’t make its way into another funding package this Congress is Mr. Biden’s $24 billion request for additional aid to Ukraine, which Mr. Johnson said he was “not planning” to do.
Another possible point of contention is how long the stopgap funding would last. Appropriators prefer for a short extension, while Mr. Johnson has floated a funding bridge until March.
Either choice would put last year’s spending work front and center in the early days of the incoming Trump administration, which some Republicans worry could bog down or outright halt work to pass key items in President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda.
“I’m not sure we’re helping the president by burdening him with a CR that runs into March or something like that,” said Rep. John Rutherford, Florida Republican. “But I’m waiting to see what leadership’s plan is for that going forward.”
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.