With government funding set to expire Tuesday, Senate leaders convened a rare Sunday session and inched closer to an agreement that will keep the government running into March.
Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said “We're going to pass a short-term continuing resolution over into March.”
However, in remarks on the floor Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid D-NV said an agreement on the continuing resolution to fund the government was “close,” but not complete. Republicans favor a short-term extension so that they can craft a “better bill”, according to McConnell spokesman Don Stewart. “We need to take the time and get it right,” he said. With the November election gains, Republicans will have an easier time molding the bill in their favor.
Failure to pass the continuing resolution would lead to a government shutdown. The Senate is scheduled to vote on the CR Tuesday, which would continue government operations through March 4, 2011. The House is also scheduled to come in on Tuesday to work on the funding resolution.
The short-term CR would allow government funding to continue at FY 2010 levels for most programs, according to a release by the Senate Appropriations Committee. It would be approximately $1.16 billion above fiscal year 2010 levels.
Earlier in the week, Congress failed to pass a budget to fund the government through the end of the current fiscal year which began on October 1. Senate Democrats proposed a $1.1 trillion spending bill but Reid abandoned the bill late Thursday night after several Republicans who had considered voting in favor of it withdrew their support. Republicans had complained the bill was filled with too many “earmarks” for special pet projects.
The short-term measure is 35 pages shorter than the initial 1, 924 page bill that Senator Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, had proposed.
When the new Congress takes over in January, spending cuts and approving funding for the new health care law are anticipated to be the first big fights. “I expect the next couple of years will be laden with spending battles,” Stewart said.
Visit the Debt Watch home page.
