Potential Government Shutdown Draws Near
By Thérèse Boudreaux | The Center Square
(Worthy News) – Congressional leaders are running out of time to forge a bipartisan deal before the federal government shuts down Friday, with farm and disaster assistance posing the biggest holdups to an agreement.
With only five days left before the deadline, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will likely need support from House Democrats to get the bill to the Senate, but the parties are having difficulty compromising on the CR.
Republicans are demanding extra farm funding be tacked on to the one-year extension on the Farm Bill. House Committee on Agriculture Chairman G.T. Thompson, R-Pa., and Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Ranking Member John Boozman, R-Ariz., announced Saturday that they will not support a CR without farmer aid.
“The failure to include economic assistance will have devastating and lasting consequences on our farm families, the rural communities in which they live and American agriculture,” the lawmakers said in a statement. “For that reason, we intend to oppose any supplemental spending package that does not provide meaningful assistance to our farmers.”
Because the CR is expected to be the last major bill Congress passes this year, the parties are also fighting over how much should be spent on hurricane disaster relief. Republicans are arguing that President Joe Biden’s nearly $100 billion request is fiscally irresponsible, but Democrats aren’t budging.
“[This] is one of the longest times in my memory that we have gone without Congress providing disaster funding. That is unacceptable,” Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a November hearing. “It is well past time we get aid out to the many people in need, after the many disasters we have faced over the past two years.”
As a result of the disagreements, congressional party leaders reached an impasse Saturday.
The current melee is a result of Congress passing a temporary CR in September to fund the government through Dec. 20. Another CR will only keep the government running until March of 2025.
This means the incoming Republican-led 119th Congress would have to handle the “real” federal budget at the same time as the Senate decides on whether to extend the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and confirm President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees. On the other hand, Republicans will then have more leverage in determining how government funding is allocated.
As of Monday morning, congressional leaders haven’t even decided on the spending topline for the new fiscal year.