House Speaker Paul Ryan warned Monday that Congress may need to work past the Dec. 11 deadline for a government funding bill, a sign Republicans and Democrats are still far apart on a final deal to fund the government for the rest of fiscal year 2016.
“Now I’ve got two big issues remaining; expiring tax provisions in the tax code, obviously funding the government, and that’s what we’re working on this week,” Ryan told a local radio station Monday. “I am on my way to the airport right now. That’s what we are working on this week, and it might take us more than just this week to get these issues put together correctly.”
The possibility of an extension became clear last week, when Democrats warned they couldn’t vote for the bill as envisioned by Republicans. Republicans have considered including language that would impose new restrictions on refugees, block EPA regulations and gut Wall Street reforms, and some want to block federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
Democrats have said including any of these provisions would lead to a shutdown, and on Monday afternoon, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was already starting to blame Republicans for another government shutdown. Reid said the only way to ensure government funding after this Friday is to remove policy language favored by Republicans.
On the Senate floor, Reid said he’s already hearing that Congress might have to be in session to work to finish work on the spending bill, even though funding expires on Friday.
“I’ve heard reports that the speaker has announced that Congress will be in session next week,” he said. “I haven’t heard from him myself, but the Dec. 11 deadline was a deadline the Republicans set, we didn’t.”
“If the Congress fails to finish our business by Dec. 11, it will be because of Republicans’ continual insistence on extraneous, poison-pill riders” on the pending funding bill.
“These are Republican riders, they’re Republican earmarks, and as long as they’re there, there can be no legislation,” Reid said. “Without legislation, the government shuts down again.”
Reid’s warning follows the White House’s warning last week that President Obama would veto a spending bill that includes GOP policy “riders.” While the bill might get to Obama’s desk in that form, the White House said Obama would prefer to the let the government partially shut down rather than sign the bill.
The White House has said it could only accept a very short-term extension, such as one lasting a few days, but not additional weeks.
