Lawmakers will have a full plate when they return to Washington this week with clashes over spending, border policy, Ukraine war aid and impeachment moves against President Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Hanging over Congress is the fast-approaching deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, engineered two deadlines, Jan. 19 and Feb. 2, to wrap up work on the dozen annual spending bills that fund the government, leaving a little over a week before the first shutdown.
The Republican-led House and Democrat-run Senate have been divided on the overall or top-line spending number after previously agreeing to $1.59 trillion as part of a deal to suspend the government’s debt limit.
House Republican appropriators warned that if a deal wasn’t struck soon between Mr. Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer by the end of the year, they wouldn’t meet the first deadline.
The first batch of expiring spending bills includes agriculture, energy and water, and Veterans Affairs. The agriculture and transportation bills stalled last year amid House Republican infighting.
SEE ALSO: White House says renegotiating top-line spending is breaking GOP’s promise
The debt limit deal will also impose an automatic 1% across-the-board spending cut if Congress can’t pass the 12 annual spending bills by April 30.
There is also the ongoing impeachment inquiry into Mr. Biden and allegations of influence peddling in his family’s hugely profitable foreign business deals. The inquiry gained steam in December when House Republicans unanimously voted to formalize the probe.
The House also will begin contempt proceedings against Mr. Biden’s son Hunter Biden, who defied a congressional subpoena to testify.
On another impeachment front, the House on Wednesday will hold its first impeachment hearing against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who Republicans say is the “greatest domestic threat to national security” because of the border crisis.
Meanwhile, a spending deal being kicked around on Capitol Hill would reduce non-defense spending while keeping defense spending at the same levels. It is far from a done deal but its proponents hope to soon unveil more details.
Mr. Schumer, New York Democrat, keeps saying they are “getting quite close.”
“I’m hopeful that we can get a budget agreement soon,” He said recently. “And I’m hopeful that we could avoid a shutdown, given the progress, that is certainly not out of the question, as some people have said it would be.”
Senators also are working on a deal to save Mr. Biden’s $110 billion emergency spending request for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. It also included money to help process migrants at the U.S. border.
House Republicans want to use the package as a vehicle for their Secure the Border Act or H.R. 2, a bill that has been a nonstarter for President Biden and his Democrats.
The Senate negotiations include elements of the bill such as retooling asylum laws, changing parole policies and the administration’s authority to expel migrants or shut the border down when migration jumps.
The talks have been inching along but blew past a self-imposed year-end deadline.
House Republicans have vowed to oppose any spending package that doesn’t include H.R. 2, with some giving the ultimatum of either shutting down the border or shutting down the government.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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