The White House yesterday requested a stopgap spending bill that would push the September 30 deadline to avoid a government shutdown until the end of January. But key congressional Republicans and Democrats aren’t exactly lining up behind that plan.
Some Republicans reportedly fret that a January deadline would result in a full-year continuing resolution that keeps funding at current levels, which are themselves a continuation of 2024 levels set under President Joe Biden.
“I just think that we get into January, get into the new year, that it’s less likely we’ll do any appropriation bills and we’ll have a yearlong CR,” Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas told The Hill on Tuesday.
Republican appropriators reportedly prefer a shorter-term extension into November to buy time for further negotiations on a bipartisan, full-year spending deal. Sen. Susan Collins, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, is reportedly pushing for the new deadline to be the Friday before Thanksgiving.
House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, has also proposed a November deadline. “I think that sentiment is probably still leaning toward something shorter, and that’s pretty much on both sides, and it’s basically with the idea to keep a sense of urgency,” Cole told reporters Tuesday.
Trump’s suggestion of a January deadline, which GOP hardliners also want, could undercut any potential deal to extend the premium Affordable Care Act tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year. Those enhanced credits could form the core of a bipartisan funding deal that wins the votes of Democrats but loses some GOP hardliners.
Congressional leaders and appropriators are also still looking to cement a potential funding deal that would see Congress approve a trio of annual spending bills by the end of the month while keeping the rest of the federal government running via a stopgap measure.
Any potential deal remains clouded by uncertainty. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Tuesday that he will insist on a “clean” stopgap funding bill this month, with any deal on the Obamacare subsidies potentially coming later.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters Wednesday that the proposals floated by Republicans so far can’t garner the Democratic support needed to pass the Senate. “What the Republicans have proposed is not good enough to meet the needs of the American people and not good enough to get our votes,” Schumer said.