Top lawmakers met Wednesday for the second straight day to negotiate a spending deal for the rest of fiscal year 2022 and avoid a government shutdown ahead of a February 18 deadline, when current funding expires.
Republicans on Wednesday reportedly proposed a counter offer for full-year spending, delaying a planned meeting of House and Senate appropriations leaders as Democrats considered the offer.
The offer “reflected a new seriousness among negotiators who until now hadn’t traded such proposals,” The Washington Post’s Tony Romm writes. But the two sides still have serious differences to overcome. For example, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) signaled Wednesday that Republicans may object to a fresh round of pandemic relief funding. “Let’s start the discussion by talking about repurposing the hundreds of billions already sitting in the pipeline,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.
The annual funding bill has been delayed by political disputes over provisions including the Hyde amendment restricting federal money for abortion. The hold-ups have prevented President Biden and Democrats from securing funding for their priorities while the government to continue to operate under stopgap measures that have kept the lights on at federal agencies while largely extending Trump-era spending levels.
“Republicans appeared content to continue in that vein, essentially dealing a political blow to Biden’s agenda in the process,” Romm reports. “But the two sides have come to see mutual benefit in striking a longer-term resolution, putting aside their differences at a moment when the United States continues to confront the pandemic at home and faces new diplomatic challenges abroad. The omicron variant of the coronavirus has sparked fresh discussions about the need for another round of federal aid, while the intensifying standoff between Russia and Ukraine has emboldened a Republican-led push to spend more on defense.”
What’s next: Lawmakers have just over two weeks before the February 18 deadline, and lots of details to work out. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee reportedly emerged from a meeting of House and Senate appropriators to tell reporters that the negotiators are still seeking an “agreement on our principles, then the [spending] top line will follow.” He added that the two sides are still trying to hash out the right balance between “social spending versus national security.” Democrats have pressed for significant increases in non-defense spending while Republicans have pushed for “parity” in defense and non-defense funding.
