Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) threatened a short-term continuing resolution on Monday if Senate Democrats do not meet his demands for a large spending bill.
The resolution would be a bipartisan funding bill that would cover the government into early next year and avoid a shutdown but without a full-year spending budget for fiscal 2023.
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“Both sides know what it would take for the Senate to pass a full-year government funding bill into law. There is no mystery here,” McConnell said. “A funding agreement would need to fully fund our national defense at the level written into the National Defense Authorization Act, without lavishing extra funding beyond what President Biden even requested onto Democrats’ partisan domestic priorities.”
The biggest hiccup for both parties is over nondefense spending in the omnibus spending bill. Republicans are looking to reduce the proposed budget for domestic policies that was offered by Democrats by $26 billion, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) told CNN. Democrats proposed pulling some of the funding for the military to compensate for the extra finances for domestic issues.
“Our Democratic colleagues have already spent two years massively increasing domestic spending, using party-line reconciliation bills outside the normal appropriations process,” McConnell said. “So, clearly, our colleagues cannot now demand even more domestic spending than President Biden even requested in exchange for funding the United States military.”
McConnell urged the Senate to pass the bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act that was organized by Sens. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and Jack Reed (D-RI) and their counterparts in the House of Representatives. The bill was passed by the House last week and is expected to pass the Senate with bipartisan support this week.
Funding the national defense is a basic governing duty for Congress, McConnell said, but unrelated domestic issues cannot be added on.
“If House and Senate Democratic colleagues can accept these realities in the very near future, we may still have a shot at assembling a full-year funding bill,” McConnell said. “If our Democratic colleagues can’t accept those realities, the option will be a short-term, bipartisan funding bill into early next year.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), however, has recommended a vote on a one-week resolution that would delay the shutdown and give appropriators more time to reach an agreement.
“The benefits of an omnibus are as many as the number of citizens in America,” Schumer said. “All of us are better off when the government is fully equipped to provide vital services millions rely on.”
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If the shutdown is not averted, government funding is set to run out on Friday.
