Congress Has Just Five Days To Avert A Government Shutdown

Topline

Lawmakers are locked in a partisan feud over the federal government’s fiscal year 2023 budget just days before a Friday deadline to avert a government shutdown, with Democrats angling to iron out a full-year spending plan while Republicans vie for a short-term spending measure before they take control of the House in January.

President Joe Biden meets with Congressional leaders in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on … [+] Tuesday November 29, 2022 to discuss a government funding bill. (Photo by Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The Washington Post via Getty Images

Key Facts

By December 16, Congress needs to reach an agreement to either outline new spending priorities through the end of this fiscal year in September 2023, or maintain spending levels at their current threshold under a continuing resolution.

The parties still have not come to an agreement on a topline figure for the deal, and are about $26 billion apart in the approximately $1.5 trillion package, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) told NBC News.

Democrats plan to unveil a bill on Monday for the full fiscal year that they hope will appease members of both parties and recruit the 10 Republican Senate votes needed to get a 60-vote supermajority, overcoming the Senate’s filibuster rules.

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), meanwhile, is hoping to pass a short-term stopgap bill to avert a government shutdown and push negotiations on a new, full-year spending package until next year, when, he said on Fox News last week, Republicans “would be stronger in every negotiation,” he said referring to the slim majority they will hold in the House come January.

Republicans argue that Democrats need to curb spending on “non-defense” priorities, such as the IRS and climate initiatives, while Democrats are pushing for more money to fund tax credits for low-income workers and families, including an expansion of the child tax credit.

Chief Critic

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who unsuccessfully challenged Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for minority leader last month, are among a group of conservative lawmakers pressuring McConnell to hold off on the full-year spending package. Lee told reporters “there’s an understandable desire on the part of the incoming members — and especially on the part of those who elected them — that you’re not going to have spending decisions made by the outgoing Congress that was just voted out of office,” noting that passing a full-year spending bill during a lame-duck session after a chamber has flipped control would break three decades of precedent.

Contra

Democrats’ “strong preference” is to pass a year-long spending package, also known as an omnibus bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said last week, calling a year-long continuing resolution a “last resort,” but one that is “much better than the poison that might befall us in another kind of bill,” she said, referring to a short-term stopgap measure. That option would force Congress to negotiate an entirely new spending plan under a Republican-controlled House. The speaker cited concerns from the Pentagon that failure to pass an omnibus deal would threaten national security programs that were not included in a separate defense bill the House approved last week. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has also advocated for passage of a full-year spending measure, warning that a short-term stopgap measure could stall progress of nuclear weapons programs, space exploration, military recruitment and hinder the U.S.’s ability to compete with China’s military operations, he wrote in a letter to congressional leaders last month.

What To Watch For

Negotiations between a Democrat-controlled Senate and Republican-led House could prompt a stalemate under next year’s split Congress and distract from other Republican priorities, creating a contentious and stressful environment early in the next session of Congress. Privately, McCarthy reportedly supports McConnell’s work toward eking out a year-long spending package before next year, multiple outlets reported. McConnell expressed hopes late last month to reach an agreement on a full-year deal following a meeting with President Joe Biden and congressional leaders. “I think there’s widespread agreement that we’d be better off with an omnibus than a [continuing resolution,] but there are some significant hurdles to get over to do that,” McConnell told reporters.

Key Background

The GOP won control of the House in last month’s midterms, but the party is operating with a weaker hand than initially predicted, as the House will be split 222-213 next year, and McCarthy is struggling to unite the hard-right and more moderate flanks of his caucus to win next month’s House speaker election. Democrats lost control of the House but slightly expanded their Senate majority, setting the stage for a divided Congress with very little potential for substantive legislating for the next two years. As a result, Democrats have sprinted to pass a handful of bills in the lame-duck session between the Election Day and the swearing-in of the new Congress, including the government funding bill as well as a defense spending package and a bill to shield same-sex marriage rights.

Tangent

Some Democrats are eyeing the omnibus spending plan as a vehicle for passing reforms to the Electoral Count Act, which would strengthen and clarify the process for certifying a presidential election in hopes of preventing a repeat of former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the results in 2020. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) expressed hopes last week to push the bill through the budget talks, they told Roll Call.

Congress Has Just Five Days To Avert A Government Shutdown—Here’s Where Negotiations Stand