Republican leaders say they’re hopeful a $1.1 trillion spending bill can be introduced as early as Monday and passed a few days later, but many major differences must be resolved over the weekend, including a policy rider that would make it difficult for Syrian and Iraqi refugees to resettle in the United States.
“We are making progress,” Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., told the Washington Examiner in an interview Friday. “There’s a lot of work ahead of us still, for the weekend. My goal is a Monday filing.”
Complicating matters, the Republican leadership is considering a plan that would tie the spending bill to another major measure that would extend dozens of popular tax cuts.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the tax cut bill is too massive for Democrats to support. Linking the two together could sink the entire deal, she suggested Friday.
Pelosi wants the tax deal to index the child tax credit to inflation, which would boost its value to Democrats. But she said Republicans have rejected that proposal and instead added a provision to end the 1970’s ban on crude oil exports, leaving talks at an impasse.
Pelosi also wants the plan to offset provisions that make permanent some of the tax cuts because it will otherwise increase the deficit. As currently proposed, Pelosi said, she won’t back the tax deal.
“I made it clear,” Pelosi said, recounting her conversation with GOP negotiators. “Don’t count on our vote for that.”
But Republicans need Democratic votes.
While some conservatives say the House GOP could easily pass both the spending and tax bills without the help of Democrats, that is not the case in the Senate, where six Democratic votes would be needed to stop a filibuster. Any bill that doesn’t give a nod to Democratic demands would also earn a presidential veto.
“It’s got to be a bill that can pass the Senate and be signed by this president,” Rogers said. “Those are the parameters.”
Rogers said GOP negotiators are talking to the White House about the Syrian refugee language. “That’s being discussed,” Rogers said.
Democrats, meanwhile, say they won’t vote for a bill that doesn’t lift a federal ban on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advocating for gun control.
Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told the Examiner Friday that despite the differences, the talks “are going well and moving toward closure,” but he did not provide specifics of the deal.
And even if the House is able to pass a bill by mid-week, the Senate could take much longer. A short-term spending patch that Obama signed on Friday lasts only until Wednesday, leaving open the possibility that Congress would have to pass yet another short-term bill.
“It remains to be seen,” Rogers said. ‘We are trying to expedite things as quickly as we can. The Senate has laborious procedures. So we’ll see if there might be a necessity for extra time. But it’s too early to know that now.”
