The House on Thursday will vote on a temporary funding measure to keep the government operating ahead of a Friday deadline, but the move could face delays in the Senate.
The short-term bill represents a bipartisan compromise: Democrats won an additional $7 billion for Afghanistan refugees, and Republicans succeeded in extending the funding until Feb. 18, about three weeks longer than Democrats had sought.
“To build pressure for an omnibus, the [continuing resolution] includes virtually no changes to existing funding or policy (anomalies). However, Democrats prevailed in including $7 billion for Afghanistan evacuees,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat. “The end date is Feb. 18. While I wish it were earlier, this agreement allows the appropriations process to move forward toward a final funding agreement which addresses the needs of the American people.”
A stop-gap bill Congress passed earlier this year will expire Friday at midnight.
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The measure House lawmakers plan to approve Thursday was negotiated with Senate Republicans and Democrats, but it may stall in the upper chamber. A group of Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, has pledged to block swift consideration of the measure in a bid to force the Biden administration to reverse federal vaccine mandates.
Any senator can object to speeding up a vote on the spending bill. That would force Democratic leaders who control the chamber to hold off on a final vote through the weekend, forcing a partial government shutdown.
Some Senate Republicans are pressuring the rest of the conference to green-light the spending bill by tomorrow in order to avoid the specter of a shutdown that Democrats will inevitably blame on the GOP.
