With less than five days until the next government funding deadline, both Democratic and Republican senators acknowledge that another short-term stopgap funding measure will likely be necessary.
Biden will call a meeting of Big Four congressional leaders on Tuesday to discuss a path forward on spending amid a looming shutdown and make a final plea for foreign aid to faltering President Mike Johnson.
Biden, Johnson (R-La.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Senate minority Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., must reach a deal on spending legislation. before midnight Friday, when funding for four of the 12 government agencies will expire.
And weeks ago, the Senate passed a $95 billion bill to provide aid to Ukraine, Israel, Gaza and the Indo-Pacific that Johnson has resisted introducing in the House without border security measures.
After meeting with Schumer on Monday, McConnell told reporters, “No, we’re not going to shut down the government.”
Johnson orchestrated the so-called “staggered” continuing resolution, or CR, as a means to push back the funding deadline by two different deadlines. For four agencies, the funds will expire on March 1. For the other eight, they will expire a week later, on March 8.
Biden will call a meeting of Big Four congressional leaders on Tuesday to discuss a path forward on spending amid a looming shutdown and make a final plea for foreign aid to faltering President Mike Johnson.
The House does not return to Washington until Wednesday night, just two days before adjournment.
“I think we should adopt another resolution until March 8 and do the whole thing at once,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., told DailyMail.com.
Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine suggested “at least doing a couple of weeks of extension.” “There is no reason why the government should shut down,” he told DailyMail.com.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, predicted Schumer would “force” a government shutdown for political purposes.
“We’ll see if Chuck Schumer and the president can come to an agreement or not,” he told DailyMail.com. “I’ve long thought that Schumer in the White House was likely to force a shutdown at some point this year, because I think Democrats believe it’s in their political interest to force a shutdown because the press will reliably blame the Republicans.”
Weekend negotiations for a spending plan for the first four agencies (Agriculture, Energy-Water, Military Construction-VA and Transportation-HUD) appeared to stall; The text was expected on Sunday night, but was not published.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told DailyMail.com that Congress would “ideally” get both chambers to negotiate and pass appropriations bills this week, but “alternatively, we’re going to have to do another continuing resolution.”
“I don’t think we should shut down the government,” Rubio said.
Schumer wrote a letter to colleagues Sunday night blaming House Republicans for the delay.
‘[I]”It is now clear that House Republicans need more time to get their heads together,” Schumer wrote. “It is my sincere hope that, in the face of a disruptive shutdown that would harm our economy and make American families less safe, President Johnson will step forward to once again confront the extremists in his camp and do the right thing.” .
Johnson responded by calling Schumer’s letter “counterproductive” and said there are “good faith” agreements underway to reach a deal.
He blamed the delay on last-minute Democratic demands “that were not previously included in the Senate bills,” including new spending priorities “that are further to the left of what their chamber agreed to.”
Democrats have been pushing for another $1 billion for the USDA’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
The House farm appropriations bill would fund the program at 2023 levels.
“This is no time for petty politics. House Republicans will continue to work in good faith and hope to reach a result as quickly as possible, even as we continue to insist that our own border security must be addressed immediately.’
Some right-wing conservatives have demanded that border security provisions be included in the spending legislation, which could derail any chance of passing both chambers.
But they have come around to the idea of another CR: The House Freedom Caucus and other fiscal hawks advocate abandoning appropriations talks and pursuing a full-year CR.
‘If Congress passes April 30 with a CR, all discretionary spending will be cut by 1%!’ Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., wrote in X a provision that was named the ‘Massie Rule’ in his honor.
A one percent across-the-board spending cut was included in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the debt limit deal negotiated between former President Kevin McCarthy and Biden.