Congress will be almost exclusively focused on government spending when it returns from summer recess on Sept. 6, as lawmakers are scheduled to quickly adjourn again in a few weeks in order to go back home and campaign ahead of the November election.
The shortened schedule means the House will be in session for only up to 17 days and the Senate for 23 days.
That leaves lawmakers with little time to work out a deal that will keep the government funded past Sept. 30, when the House is scheduled to leave town again and when fiscal 2016 spending expires.
Appropriations measures were stalled when Congress adjourned in July. Democrats and Republicans have been battling over how to fund the government’s fight against the Zika virus, as well as whether to raise the levels of military and domestic spending.
On Tuesday, the Senate will hold a test vote on a House-Senate compromise bill that would provide $1.1 billion in funding to fight Zika, a mosquito-transmitted disease that causes grave birth defects and has begun infecting residents in Florida.
Senate Democrats blocked the measure this summer mostly because it siphons funding from Obamacare and other government accounts. They’ll likely vote to hold up the bill again this week, leaving lawmakers essentially no closer to a funding solution than when they left town for the summer.
The Obama administration has already redirected nearly $600 million in existing government funds to the Zika fight, including $81 million in August. Obama and Democrats are seeking new money from Congress over the objections of Republicans, who are insisting on providing offsets so the nation’s deficit does not increase.
A GOP aide told the Washington Examiner Republicans are considering “a number of options” that will be discussed with lawmakers this week.
“There are a lot of discussions happening right now,” including whether to pair Zika funding with other legislation or move it alone, the aide said.
The current Zika-funding measure is attached to an $82.5 billion spending bill for military construction and veterans affairs, one of a dozen appropriations bills that has failed to reach Obama’s desk, despite a 2015 deal on spending caps that was supposed to facilitate their passage.
While the House has passed five spending bills, the Senate has approved only two such measures and none has cleared Congress, thanks mostly to opposition from Democrats.
With individual spending bills stalled, lawmakers in both parties are now aiming to take up a continuing resolution, or CR, which is a measure that would fund the government temporarily at fiscal 2016 levels, preventing a shutdown.
“A CR will likely be needed,” House Appropriations Committee spokeswoman Jennifer Hing said. “Right now, we are working on the technical back-work to prepare for one. No specifics as of yet.”
The House GOP’s most conservative faction of about 40 Republicans is pushing for a CR that lasts into 2017 in order to preserve spending caps, but it’s more likely the House GOP will cut a deal with Democrats to produce a bill that passes the Senate and is signed by Obama.
House GOP lawmakers will meet on Wednesday to begin discussions, a GOP aide told the Washington Examiner.
In addition to spending legislation, the House and Senate will begin negotiating a deal on a $600 billion defense policy measure. The House version calls for an $18 billion boost in defense spending, which Republicans say is needed to combat Islamic State terrorism and instability in the Middle East.
The Senate bill does not include the defense boost because Democrats in the upper chamber insisted it be paired with an increase in domestic spending.
