Senators are poised to set up a clash with the House on Thursday when they unveil fiscal 2024 spending legislation that is starkly higher than spending measures the House plans to pass.
The Democrat-led Senate plans to keep spending levels in line with a bipartisan debt-limit deal struck by President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last month, while the GOP-led House has slashed an additional $130 billion from their 2024 spending levels.
The difference in overall spending between the two chambers is likely to lead to a prolonged fight over government funding and the threat of a partial government shutdown later this year.
“In the Senate, we’re going to follow the agreement that everybody agreed to as passed and signed into law,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, Washington Democrat.
The debt-ceiling deal, which suspended the nation’s $31.4 trillion borrowing limit until Jan. 1, 2025, capped domestic spending levels for next year at about $704 billion. Defense spending would be capped at $866 billion.
House Republicans, however, say they plan to push for their additional spending cuts.
“The debt ceiling bill set a ceiling, not a floor,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Kay Granger, Texas Republican. “The allocations before us reflect the change members on my side of the aisle want to see.”
Mr. McCarthy agreed to the $130 billion cut in spending after 11 hard-line conservative lawmakers paralyzed the House floor earlier this month.
The weeklong blockade of House initiatives, led by members of the House Freedom Caucus, was meant to show that Mr. McCarthy could not take their votes for granted and that they expected the California Republican to stick to conservative spending rules set by the House GOP in January.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, called the House GOP spending bills “a prelude to a shutdown.”
Rep. Ken Buck, Colorado Republican and member of the Freedom Caucus, said he’s not interested in backing down from the House GOP’s spending limit.
“We’ll let them fight it out over there,” Mr. Buck said, waving to the Senate side of the Capitol. “I think that when the Senate wakes up from their nap, they will understand that we’re spending too much money.”
Rep. Byron Donalds, Florida Republican and member of the Freedom Caucus, said House Republicans should push hard to keep their spending levels.
He said the Democrat-led Senate has partisan motives for higher spending.
“There’s no rhyme or reason, except that that’s the budget levels that the agencies are accustomed to,” Mr. Donalds said. “Well, guess what? They don’t earn money. They spend money, so who cares what they’re accustomed to?”
If there is no agreement on spending by the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year, the House and Senate will pass a stopgap spending bill. Without a deal by January, an across-the-board spending cut of 1% would take effect.
That would open up vulnerable House Republicans to allegations they cut popular programs from veterans benefits to school lunches, heading into an election year.
“It would trigger an automatic, meat-ax across-the-board cut in our already inadequate defense budget and in domestic, non-defense funding,” said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Mrs. Collins and other moderates say the only thing worse would be a full-fledged shutdown.
Freedom Caucus hardliners see it differently.
“Democrats have no interest in cutting spending. They have to be forced to do so. We should have used the debt ceiling to force them to cut spending,” said Rep. Bob Good, Virginia Republican. “We should use the appropriations process to force them to cut spending. We shouldn’t fear a government shutdown. Most of what we do up here is bad anyway.”
• Haris Alic can be reached at halic@washingtontimes.com.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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