House Republicans on Monday worked behind closed doors to hash out the final details of a $1.1 trillion government spending bill in time to pass the legislation by a Dec. 11 deadline.
House appropriators aimed to release the language of the bill late Monday night, which would allow a Wednesday House vote while satisfying a required two-day waiting period for lawmakers to review the measures.
But a senior GOP aide told the Washington Examiner that a Monday release was “possible, but not probable,” as lawmakers deal finish writing the deal. Part of the delay stems from a push from some Republicans to include policy riders that would rein in the Environmental Protection Agency.
A Tuesday release, rather than a Monday release, would mean the House wouldn’t be able to debate the bill until Thursday, the day a short-term government spending bill expires.
The Senate would then have to take up the House bill the same day or risk a government shut down.
The House and Senate may have to agree to pass a very short, stopgap bill lasting just a day or two in order to give themselves a few more days to pass the $1.1 trillion deal.
Republicans plan to propose a two-part legislative spending plan: One bill would fund most of the government until the end of fiscal 2015, while a second bill would keep the Department of Homeland Security operating through February or March.
The short-term measure is aimed at satisfying the GOP’s conservative faction, who want to use future Homeland Security spending to block President Obama’s new policy to curb deportations once Republicans control both the House and Senate beginning in 2015.
Some conservatives say they’ll vote against the bill because it doesn’t defund Obama’s deportation directive.
“The Administration is already hiring over a thousand employees to implement his unfair amnesty plan, so it is not an option to wait until April or even March,” Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., said of the plan.
In the Senate, the top Republican on the Budget Committee, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, gave a speech Monday before the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch saying Congress should do everything in its power to stop Obama’s deportation directive.
“Congress can block it,” Sessions said, although he added that GOP lawmakers faced better odds of taking on Obama’s executive action in 2015, when Republicans control both chambers.
“Yes, Congress should act,” Sessions said. “Nobody wants a government shutdown but fundamentally, I don’t think the president’s hand is very strong in all of this, because the American people do not like what he’s done, they don’t like the policy behind it and they think it’s unconstitutional.”
With some conservative Republicans clearly unwilling to vote for the current spending package, House Republican leaders are counting on Democrats to help them pass the two measures.
But Democrats are threatening to withhold support for the legislation if it includes provisions limiting the EPA or other Obama administration agencies.
Republicans this year passed several bills restricting the EPA in the House this year, and some are demanding that it be included in the larger spending bill. But Democrats say they won’t back legislation that includes “policy riders.”
According to some news reports, the deal is on the verge of falling apart.
But when asked by the Washington Examiner if the spending package was in peril, a top GOP aide answered “no.”
