Congress has just 10 days left until federal funding runs out, and lawmakers have not reached an agreement to keep the lights on during the holidays.
Members on both sides of the aisle expect the government to remain open past the Dec. 20 shutdown deadline. But negotiators are leaving their counterparts in the shadowy about how that will be achieved as funding talks enter a critical phase.
Negotiators have cited ongoing work to assess disaster relief as a key factor in discussions, as members expect disaster relief to run in parallel with any funding gaps, also known as a continuing resolution (CR), adopted this month .
House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said last week that negotiators were continuing to support the Biden administration’s “robust” request for more than $100 billion in disaster relief to deal with Hurricane Helene and Milton would have checked.
“I have already said that they are very robust. I think they should be. I think we have a real disaster,” he said of the proposals.
But while the president’s request includes tens of billions of dollars in funding for disaster programs like the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Cole also said he was “not interested in additional money for programs that have nothing to do with disasters, and some of that is in the proposal.” of the President.” .”
Republicans singled out funding requests for the departments of state and education and the Environmental Protection Agency that were included in the disaster funding request.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, also suggested that the lack of a top agreement on disaster relief would delay funding talks.
“There haven’t been any real tough debates about what’s there because the problem is we need to peak and then we can start moving forward,” she said recently, speaking about the negotiations surrounding disaster relief and overall government funding .
Since Congress returned from recess in November, not long after the devastating effects of hurricanes Milton and Helene, bipartisan calls for leadership to pass disaster relief legislation have grown louder.
Cole said Congress could also address the disaster emergency “on its own,” but noted that leadership believed “implementing the CR would help.”
His comments came a day before the House Freedom Caucus conservative came out against “unpaid” disaster relief legislation and called for “not a dime more to be paid” to the Biden administration.
The statement came as no surprise as members of the caucus had already expressed reservations about the size and scope of the Biden administration’s disaster relief request. But it suggests Democratic votes will likely be needed again for GOP leadership to push a final stopgap funding bill through the House to prevent a funding shortfall before the next Congress begins.
Other issues like IRS funding and dollars for the Social Security Administration could also emerge as focal points in spending talks as pressure mounts on lawmakers with little time left in the current session.
Lawmakers expect leadership to close a gap that will last sometime next March, although some Republicans in both chambers have pushed for a CR that ends sooner to get Congress to complete its funding work more quickly.
Others also worry that President-elect Trump’s first months in office could take up too much time finalizing the 2025 budget bills.
“In my opinion, we should, we should clarify this now, be careful not to put it on President Trump and certainly not to distract from reconciliation, which is our greatest opportunity for a change of course in politics, with the discretion of the last fiscal year.” Budget,” House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) told reporters last week.
“Whatever we decide, we will commit to it and see it through,” he added. But he warned that Congress is “carrying over all of last year’s problems into next year in this new administration and a new Congress.”
While there is still just over a month until Trump is inaugurated for the second time, Republicans in Congress have already made far-reaching plans to advance the novel president’s tax and spending agenda next year.
With Republicans having slim control of both chambers of Congress and the White House, they are seeking special but restrictive budget maneuvers that could lead them to pass sweeping tax policy changes as well as a border package in early 2025, despite expected opposition from Senate Democrats say goodbye.
Lawmakers will also have to grapple with how to address the country’s debt limit next year. And while another partisan showdown over the country’s debt ceiling, like the one that took place in Washington last year in a divided Congress, is less likely with a Republican trifecta, drama could ensue as the country’s debt reaches $36 trillion dollar is causing concern among fiscal hawks.
There are also fears among Republicans about delaying funding too slow into next year, as the government could be forced to make sweeping cuts in the spring if Congress falls too far behind in its funding work.
“That definitely needs to happen before April or we’re going to see cuts in defense and increases in non-defense across the board, which I don’t think is what the Republican conference wants,” Cole said adding that he’s thinking “the sooner we can get a deal done, the better off we’ll be.”
