Lawmakers face Dec. 20 deadline to keep government funded

3/12/2024 5:52

        The Democratic-led U.S.
        Senate returned on Monday for a showdown with the
        Republican-controlled House of Representatives over government
        spending, disaster relief and defense policy before
        President-elect Donald Trump ushers in a new era of single-party
        rule next month.
        
        The main challenge for lawmakers over the next three weeks
        is to avert a pre-Christmas partial government shutdown by
        striking a bipartisan deal to fund federal agencies beyond Dec.
        20, when a current stopgap spending measure is due to expire.
        
        The debate will include a nearly $100 billion emergency
        disaster relief request from President Joe Biden for areas of
        the U.S. Southeast hit by hurricanes Helene and Milton, and
        other communities struck by natural disasters.
        
        Congress also faces a Jan. 1 deadline for raising the
        federal government's debt ceiling, though lawmakers and aides
        say that extraordinary measures employed by the Treasury
        Department are likely to postpone the expected "X" date for
        default well into 2025.
        
        Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer indicated on Monday
        that lawmakers are negotiating a short-term stopgap funding bill
        known as a continuing resolution, or CR, rather than a package
        of annual spending bills that would fund the government through
        fiscal year 2025, which ends on Sept. 30.
        
        "Both sides are making progress negotiating on a bill that
        can pass the House and Senate with bipartisan support. We need
        to keep divisive and unnecessary provisions out of any
        government funding extension," Schumer, a Democrat, said on the
        Senate floor.
        
        Schumer did not disclose details about a potential CR,
        which House Speaker Mike Johnson has said would run into early
        next year.
        
        Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell chided Schumer for
        not moving forward with funding and other major legislation
        earlier in the year, saying, "December drama is not the way to
        demonstrate we're serious about our most basic governing
        responsibilities."
        
        Trump's allies are pushing for a three-month stopgap that
        supporters say would allow their party's incoming political
        trifecta to dismantle current Democratic spending initiatives
        and policy priorities early in the new administration.
        
        Legislative action on government funding is not expected to
        begin in the House until the last of the session's three weeks,
        timing that could raise risks for Johnson's slim 220-213
        Republican majority if they opt for a partisan measure first.
        
        House Republicans failed to pass their own partisan stop-gap
        measure in September and had to rely on mainly Democratic votes
        to narrowly avert a shutdown weeks before the Nov. 5 election.
        
        
        
        FIRST 100 DAYS
        
        This time, Republicans aim to display greater unity ahead of
        gaining full control over fiscal 2025 funding early next year.
        
        But the stopgap approach will also drain time and energy
        away from Trump's ambitious first-100-days agenda of tax cuts,
        energy deregulation and border security.
        
        House Republicans will have a similarly narrow majority next
        year and could see their margin of error shrink to a single vote
        for several months, with the departure of Matt Gaetz and two
        other Republicans who are set to join the Trump administration.
        
        The 100-day agenda of Trump's first presidency ran aground
        in 2017 over a similar funding question, forcing him to withdraw
        his controversial plan to finance a wall along the U.S.-Mexico
        border to avoid a government shutdown that April.
        
        But Republicans believe they can enact Trump's agenda this
        time.
        
        "There's no daylight between their agenda and what they
        envision and what we envision for the House," said Johnson, who
        has been in close contact with Trump.
        
        Trump's transition team did not respond to a request for
        comment.
        
        Top lawmakers have yet to say how they intend to handle a
        Biden request for emergency disaster relief.
        
        The head of the Small Business Administration recently
        testified to Congress that the agency's disaster loan program
        for homeowners, renters, and businesses ran out of money in
        October, leaving more than 60,000 loan applicants waiting for
        assistance.
        
        Aides said a disaster relief package would likely be
        attached to a CR.
        
        But the first objective for Congress this month is likely to
        be passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA,
        annual legislation that sets policy for the Defense Department,
        according to congressional aides. Floor votes could come as
        early as next week, according to aides.