With negotiations pushing against the Friday deadline to fund the government, the House passed a short-term funding measure by voice vote Friday to avert a government shutdown and give Congress until next Wednesday to pass a $1 trillion-plus spending bill.
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Lawmakers continue to negotiate terms of the omnibus bill and political “riders” that have been tacked onto it – like a crude oil export ban and the funding of the Syrian refugee program.
“Republicans’ insistence on including unsafe, harmful policies in the spending bill has halted progress”, Nita Lowey of NY, the top Democrat on the appropriations panel, said.
Commenting on parallel negotiations over a permanent renewal of several expired tax breaks, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi warned that Democrats would not support the measure as proposed, adding that it should not be combined with the spending measure. This scenario would require another short-term spending bill. House Speaker Paul Ryan indicated the House might need even more time to make sure the “negotiations are done well and done right”, the Associated Press reported.
The Senate voted without debate Thursday to extend the deadline through Wednesday to allow for more discussion.
On the day the federal government is due to run out of money, Congress did what it does best – punted the deadline for a few more days to avoid a shutdown.
“We’re not going to allow Democrats to jam us with hard deadlines”, Republican John Fleming said. “We’ve had meetings; there’s no finality”, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said late Thursday. He said sticking points relate to labor and environmental issues, and a campaign finance provision pushed by his Republican counterpart, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, to lift certain spending limits by party committees. But the two sides have been unable to reach a final agreement due a dispute over contentious policy riders.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) said Friday that the funding extension will last five days and he hopes it will buy enough time to finish the negotiations.
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As negotiators in Paris worked to finalize a global agreement on climate change, the Republican-controlled House approved a bill Friday that would block trade deals from being used to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
