Republicans and Democrats on Tuesday stopped short of supporting specific legislation that would effectively end government shutdowns by keeping funding stable even if lawmakers fail to pass appropriations measures on time.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said he backs a House nonbinding resolution lawmakers will vote on today disapproving of government shutdowns. But he said he does not support a more ambitious measure that would sustain government funding with a “continuing resolution” when Congress hits a spending impasse like the one that just ended after a 35-day partial government shutdown.
“I don’t believe having the government on a CR ad infinitum is good policy and it certainly undermines the ability of the Congress of the United States to set policy as it should do,” Hoyer told reporters Tuesday.
Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said a bill blocking shutdowns is “the right approach legislatively,” but he would not back a specific measure.
“The House Democratic caucus strongly supports the end of using shutdowns as negotiating tactics,” Jeffries said after meeting with rank-and-file members privately. “With respect to specific legislation, I’m not going to comment one way or another because there are a variety of proposals we need to have a healthy debate on moving forward.”
Some lawmakers are pushing for immediate consideration of such legislation in the wake of the shutdown that ended on Friday. The closures of nine departments and dozens of agencies handicapped important government functions and left 800,000 workers without paychecks.
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, introduced legislation last week that would invoke an automatic continuing resolution to keep the federal government open at current budget levels “when budget negotiations falter before key spending deadlines.” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., introduced a similar measure earlier this month.
The idea of providing government funding even when lawmakers disagree has garnered increasing bipartisan support and has the backing of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who said he’d add a provision to cut lawmakers’ pay until a deal is reached.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said the provision should be included in a long-term spending deal a group of lawmakers are negotiating ahead of a Feb. 15 deadline.
But such legislation isn’t winning over the appropriators in either party, who say it would circumvent the authority of Congress to set federal spending levels.
“I’m a little nervous about it,” said Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., the former House Appropriations chairman. “It would interfere with the appropriations process. It would put an emphasis on not passing bills, so it could be quite significant.”
Hoyer, like Rogers, is a longtime member of the Appropriations Committee but is taking a leave of absence due to his leadership position.
Hoyer said he would rather focus on getting appropriations bills passed on time, rather than on passing legislation to continuously fund the government no matter how Congress acts.
“There are a number of bills being talked about,” Hoyer told reporters. “I have reservations about those bills.”
Hoyer pointed out that the Portman measure would start to reduce federal spending by one percent increments if Congress fails to reach a deal after several months.
“I’m not a subscriber of that,” Hoyer said.
Hoyer instead pitched a proposal to prevent government workers from having to work without pay for more than a week. During the shutdown, hundreds of thousands of federal workers reported to their jobs despite missing paychecks. Hoyer’s proposal would keep them home if they are not paid, he said, acknowledging it would create serious problems if essential employees stayed home.
“That would be quite a wake-up call for people,” Hoyer said.
