Congressional leaders are eyeing a short-term deal to keep the government funded past a Sept. 30 deadline, working to buy themselves time to resolve major spending disputes without shutting down the government.
Top Republicans and Democrats in the Senate and House have conceded that a stopgap bill will be needed to keep government funds flowing while they try to reach a long-term compromise that can clear Congress and be signed by President Trump. The government is currently being funded by such an interim measure that was enacted in March.
But with Republicans pushing for deep cuts and Democrats resisting, a broad spending agreement will be exceedingly difficult. And even a short-term measure is likely to be challenging, with the two parties divided over key details. Such a package would also pose a political challenge for Democrats, who weathered a backlash from their voters in March when they allowed the current stopgap spending bill to move forward.
“We don’t want a shutdown,” said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader. “We want bipartisan negotiations and a bipartisan bill. If Republicans want to keep the government open, they’ve got to work with us.”
Back in March, Democrats agonized for days over whether to supply the votes needed to allow the G.O.P.-written temporary spending measure to move ahead. Mr. Schumer and nine other members of his caucus ultimately voted to let it advance, arguing that a shutdown would only empower Mr. Trump to tighten his grip on federal agencies and to unilaterally decide what money to spend.
Democrats have said they would find it extremely difficult to back future funding measures without some kind of assurance that Republicans would not continue to allow the Trump administration to cancel spending after Congress approves it. In order to clear a Senate filibuster, government spending deals have historically been bipartisan products.
Instead, the Trump administration last month advanced a new effort to unilaterally claw back $4.9 billion that lawmakers approved for foreign aid programs, infuriating Democrats.
“It almost seems like they want a fight,” Senator John Hickenlooper, Democrat of Colorado, said of the gambit, known as a pocket rescission.
At the same time, Republicans appear poised to change the rules of the Senate to fast-track the confirmation of Mr. Trump’s nominees, an attempt to overcome Democratic insistence on holding formal roll call votes on every executive branch nominee.
The Republican efforts have riled Democrats, who for months have seethed at the president’s escalating campaign to undercut congressional spending authority.
“I’m not going to go along with keeping the government open unless they change course,” Senator Chris Coons of Delaware told NPR.
“Trump has made it clear that the budget is not worth the paper it’s written on,” said Senator Christopher S. Murphy of Connecticut. “There can’t be any good-faith negotiation when the implementer of the budget is refusing to implement it.”
For now, Democratic leaders have said they are willing to vote for a spending package, as long as they get a say in the contents.
Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said at a news conference on Wednesday that she would support negotiating bipartisan versions of three of the least divisive spending bills the Senate and the House have already separately approved, then passing them with a stopgap bill.
Any short-term spending agreement “needs to reflect Democratic values and principles, and needs to be a real bipartisan compromise,” Ms. Murray said.
Efforts to find a compromise on spending levels could be difficult. House Republicans have largely rejected the deepest spending cuts proposed by the White House, but they are advancing funding bills setting drastically lower spending levels than their counterparts in the Senate. Their bills would slash spending across the board, including an 11 percent cut to the bill that funds the Departments of Labor, Heath and Human Services, and Education.
“Following the president’s clear direction, we have taken a critical look at every program, and in several cases had to make hard decisions on some ‘nice-to-have’ programs,” said Representative Robert Aderholt of Alabama, who leads the spending subcommittee in charge of labor and health. “Americans must prioritize resources at the kitchen table, and we should be doing the same here in Congress.”
The question of how long a stopgap bill would last could also divide Republicans. More conservative House Republicans have long chafed at yearlong temporary bills because the bills traditionally keep spending flat and do not make cuts.
Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the Republican majority leader, said lawmakers would “inevitably” need a stopgap measure “for some time.”
He added: “What that looks like and how long that might extend, I think, probably, is a matter of discussion.”
Some Democrats have privately said that they are negotiating against a backdrop that is more politically favorable to them than the one they encountered in March, an argument that Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota made publicly this week.
“One thing that’s different from back then: Donald Trump at the beginning of this year was 9 points up,” Ms. Klobuchar said. “He’s 9 points under.”
That has created a political environment, she said, that has allowed Mr. Schumer and Democrats to recruit strong candidates to run for the Senate in next year’s crucial midterm elections, she said.
“It is a very different situation,” she continued, “and they know it.”
Catie Edmondson covers Congress for The Times.
The post Members of Congress Grasp for a Stopgap Deal to Avert a Shutdown appeared first on New York Times.
