Efforts to reach a spending deal this week had already stalled Monday, raising the prospects of a possible shutdown and prompting both parties to blame each other for the impasse.
Republicans and Democrats are also trying to pass legislation to extend dozens of expiring tax breaks, but those efforts are stalled as well. The difficulty in reaching agreements on spending and taxes already had lawmakers talking about the possibility of staying in Washington for the weekend or even working into next week, even though funding now expires on Dec. 11.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., blamed Democrats for the holdup on the government spending bill, also known as the omnibus.
“I think there have been a number of issues that have not been finalized,” McCarthy said. “Some may be coming from the Democratic side in the House.”
McCarthy said Democratic leaders are blocking their members on the House Appropriations Committee from making a deal. But Democrats told the Washington Examiner that the Republicans have yet remove poison-pill “riders” from the legislation that Democrats will not support, which makes it impossible for them to support the bill.
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., sent a memo to fellow Democrats on Monday to say the talks on both bills had stalled over the riders. “In order for us to support the omnibus bill, the poison pill riders must go,” Pelosi said in the memo.
Democrats say they are opposed to Republican “riders” that roll back EPA and Wall Street Reform regulations. They are also against a GOP provision that would effectively halt President Obama’s Syrian refugee resettlement program. The provision is based on a bill the House passed with strong bipartisan support that requires certification that Syrian and Iraqi refugees to not pose a terrorism threat.
“I would like to see the Syrian refugee bill become law,” McCarthy said.
Republican leaders are also facing pressure from their most conservative flank, which says they want the spending bill to include a provision allowing states to decide whether tax dollars should be spend on Planned Parenthood, a women’s health care and abortion provider.
The two sides also can’t reach a deal on tax extenders. Democrats want that bill to include an expansion of low-income tax credits. Republicans, meanwhile, want the deal to allow the U.S. to export liquid natural gas.
“I would hate to see the extenders not get done,” McCarthy said.
But in her memo to Democrats, Pelosi said Democratic negotiators want the child tax credit made permanent and indexed to inflation.
“However, the indexing has been rejected by Republicans,” Pelosi said, adding that the tax package “was on a dangerous path of being too large for members to support” if it excludes bigger tax breaks for lower income brackets.
Because of the impasse, McCarthy said he envisions keeping lawmakers in Friday, “or maybe this weekend,” to finish both the spending and tax bills. McCarthy said if Congress runs out of time, it could pass another temporary, short-term spending bill.
However, the White House has warned it would not accept any long extension, and would only agree to one lasting a few days to wrap up negotiations.
Congress is scheduled to adjourn on Dec. 18, but McCarthy suggested he wanted to finish the House agenda for the year by this weekend at the latest.
“We are in the midst of closure on these and we are not there yet,” McCarthy said. “If we have to do a short-term bill we will, but the way I look at things, why don’t we get our work done?”
