Lawmakers and staff will work over the weekend in the hopes of reaching an agreement on a $1.15 trillion spending bill, after a week in which Democrats said they can’t support several policy proposals Republicans are hoping to insert into the bill.
Democratic opposition is threatening to prevent Congress from passing the bill by Dec. 11, when full funding for the federal government will expire.
“Negotiations are ongoing and will continue over the weekend,” House Appropriations Committee spokesperson Jennifer Hing told the Washington Examiner.
Republicans and Democrats exchanged offers and counteroffers over the last week, but couldn’t reach a deal.
“It’s back and forth, back and forth,” a top Democratic aide said Friday. “Nothing’s clear.”
When it comes to spending, the legislation is considered a victory for Democrats because it raises spending beyond the budget caps by $50 billion in 2016 and $30 billion in 2017. But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi fumed at the GOP’s preliminary offer, which she called a “Tea Party policy wish list with an appropriations bill as an addendum to it.”
Republican leaders are fielding a list of must-have provisions from their conservative flank, who are insisting the bill include the language of a House-passed bill that would require significantly increased vetting for Syrian and Iraqi refugees, including a certification by top federal security officials that none pose a terrorism or security threat. Conservatives are also seeking language that would give states the authority to decide whether to provide tax dollars to Planned Parenthood, a women’s health care an abortion provider.
The GOP proposal Pelosi received left out language about Planned Parenthood. But it did include language on Syria, Wall Street and the EPA, which drew Democratic objections.
Republican leaders are also angling to include campaign finance provisions that will boost spending limits, a move that both Democrats and the most conservative lawmakers oppose.
Senate Democrats sent a letter to Senate Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., warning they won’t support a bill with riders rolling back new EPA regulations, including a regulation that expands government oversight of rivers, streams and marshes.
“Anti-environmental riders that cater to special interests or reflect individual member’s distaste for certain agencies should have no place in the FY16 spending package,” the letter said.
With terrorism dominating the news and American interest, according to polls, the Syrian refugee could become the biggest sticking point in the legislation. Democrats are likely to reject any move to halt the resettlement program, but pressure is mounting on Republicans to push for it.
Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, has introduced legislation that would block the Syrian resettlement plan and the bill has attracted 73 GOP co-sponsors. The group sent a letter to GOP leaders, demanding they include the measure in the 2016 spending bill.
“There is no duty of the federal government more important than ensuring the protection of the American people,” lawmakers told GOP leaders in the letter. “We believe that we would fall short of that duty if Congress fails to exercise greater authority over the administration’s refugee resettlement program.”
