Experts say that there is little hope for the latest House defense spending bill in the Senate.
Advertisement
The conservative House Freedom Caucus took an official position in favor of the GOP plan to couple the temporary funding bill with full defense funding for the rest of the fiscal year, increasing the chances that GOP leaders won’t need to rely on Democratic votes to get it across the finish line in the House. And that’s already causing a snag in the House. Mr. Ryan said this is yet another example of Congress moving ahead on an agenda laid out by President Trump during the 2016 campaign. Bloomberg reports that the increased spending would be partially offset by cuts to mandatory spending programs, according to the Republican summary.
Senate leaders announced a bipartisan two-year budget agreement Wednesday that would provide almost $300 billion in additional funding, a step likely to avert a Friday government shutdown and end a monthslong impasse on spending priorities. He said the House’s stopgap bill would not pass the Senate.
Failure to agree on spending led to a partial three-day shutdown of government agencies last month.
“I don’t know what kind of waste we’ve got to swallow in order to get an agreement on defense”, Sen.
Senators were indicating Tuesday that they were close to a deal on spending. He can pass the spending bill with just Republican votes.
Lawmakers weren’t eager for another shutdown.
USA federal government is running on a short-term spending bill which expires on February 8.
Although Schumer and the White House are optimistic toward bipartisanship, many Republican and Democratic lawmakers warn about the precedent the budget sets. After McConnell and Schumer announced the agreement, it was unclear if it had enough support in the House.
Schumer said he has been working to earn support for the budget deal among House Democrats, who have been wary of supporting a long-term budget agreement without an immigration bill granting protections to people in the country illegally who were brought to the United States as children.
McConnell told reporters Tuesday that next week the Senate will consider DACA proposals as long as the government remains open.
Congress aims to avoid letting funding lapse for the second time in less than a month. “Even though I think there’s an intention to take up the issue, I want that intention to be clearly and unequivocally expressed”.
Immigration reform was a key point of debate during the previous government shutdown until Schumer secured votes to end the shutdown after McConnell promised a vote on DACA funding in the future.
Advertisement
The third-ranking House Republican, Representative Steve Scalise, said negotiations over the debt ceiling are being coupled with talks to reach a deal on this year’s spending limits for defense and non-defense programs.
