Congressional lawmakers could bring up a stopgap government funding bill as soon as this week as negotiations between Republicans and Democrats on a larger omnibus spending bill drag on, according to a top House Democrat.
Doing so would avert a government shutdown after Feb. 18, the date set by the last continuing resolution to fund the government that Congress passed in early December. Lawmakers’ goal is a spending bill agreement that lasts through the end of the 2022 fiscal year on Sept. 30.
“We’re going to get something done, it will probably be a short-term C.R., and it will be this coming week to give us a little more time,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on MSNBC Sunday, adding that negotiations are “very vigorous.”
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March 11 is being discussed by leaders as a possible end date for the continuing resolution, Punchbowl News reported Monday.
More than a year into President Joe Biden’s tenure, the government is still operating at spending levels set under former President Donald Trump, as Congress has opted to pass a series of continuing resolutions since the end of the federal government’s fiscal year on Sept. 30, 2021.
Because regular bills need 60 votes to advance in the Senate, 10 Republican votes are required for any funding bill. Negotiations have ramped up in the new year, but sticking points remain. Among those are Republicans wanting military spending to be increased by the same proportion as nonmilitary spending and the Hyde Amendment, the decades-old provision prohibiting federal funds from being spent on abortion services.
Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee and a key negotiator on the spending deal, told reporters last week that lawmakers were “probably” headed in the direction of needing a continuing resolution.
Even as leaders signal the need for a short-term funding bill as negotiations continue, some lawmakers say national security concerns require a full funding bill rather than a stopgap.
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the Hill press pool on Friday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned lawmakers that passing a continuing resolution “diminishes our capacity security-wise,” particularly in light of the Russia-Ukraine standoff.
Some hard-line conservative House Republicans have called on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and party leaders to refuse to pass any government funding measure, whether by continuing resolution or otherwise unless it defunds remaining vaccine mandates. McConnell has resisted that push.
