Major spending and policy disagreements await lawmakers as they return to Washington next week while time to fund the government dwindles.
Congress has until Jan. 19 and Feb. 2 to finish work on a handful of spending bills to fund the government, but disagreements over the overall spending level, or top line, have bogged down negotiations.
Congress technically already reached a top-line number at $1.59 trillion in May, but some House Republicans have pressed for deeper cuts, or for a future agreement to get rid of a multibillion-dollar side deal that would increase overall spending to $1.65 trillion.
A person familiar with ongoing talks between House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer told The Washington Times that an agreement below the $1.59 trillion could be reached “soon.”
That agreement could include cuts to nondefense projects while maintaining the $886 billion in military spending previously agreed to in the debt-ceiling deal.
But Wednesday’s update came with the caveat that “there’s no deal until there’s a deal.”
If an agreement can’t be reached and a partial shutdown becomes inevitable, Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, has promised that he would push a yearlong stopgap bill to keep the government open.
A yearlong stopgap is unappetizing for many Democratic and Republican lawmakers in both chambers because it would trigger an automatic 1% cut in spending across the board.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, said shortly before Congress left that a yearlong stopgap bill would be “simply unacceptable.”
“It’s devastating, particularly for defense and we’ve got all of these wars going on,” Mr. McConnell said. “So we need to reach an agreement on the top line and get about getting an outcome as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile, Senate negotiators have inched forward on including stricter policy provisions to tackle the growing issue at the U.S./Mexico border into President Biden’s emergency supplemental funding request that includes billions for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Mr. Schumer, New York Democrat, told reporters on Tuesday that Democrats and Republicans agree that there needs to be fixes to the border, but it has to be done in a “that can get 60 votes here in the Senate and the majority of us there in the House.”
But a growing group of House Republicans are demanding their blockbuster border deal be added or passed in full, or they’ll shut down the government.
“I am obliged to inform you of my duty to refuse to fund — or otherwise empower — the United States government, or any foreign government it is supporting, unless and until it fulfills its constitutional obligation to defend our borders from invasion,” said Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Republican, in a letter to his colleagues.
Mr. Schumer warned that if House Republicans cling to their border bill as the only solution, there would be no deal.
“We’re willing to meet the Republicans a good part of the way,” Mr. Schumer said. “I think now in the last few days, many Republicans have begun to realize that we are willing to do that and how serious we are about getting this done.”
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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