Republican electoral wins in each the presidential race and the Senate are altering the sport on authorities funding, as Congress braces for a battle over federal spending when lawmakers return subsequent week.
The rising chance of a trifecta of Republican management in Washington is placing GOP leaders squarely within the driver’s seat in deciding whether or not to finish their annual funding work this 12 months or punt the present Dec. 20 shutdown deadline into subsequent 12 months, when President-elect Trump is in workplace.
Whereas a short-term stopgap would permit a doubtlessly GOP-controlled Congress and a Republican president extra say over how the federal government will likely be funded for a lot of 2025, it might additionally go away the celebration with a hefty to-do checklist within the first months of Trump presidency, between tying up spending, reckoning with the nation’s debt ceiling, and different first 100-day priorities leaders are mulling.
Republicans will most definitely management 53 seats within the Senate, and Trump received the White Home decisively. Management of the Home has but to be referred to as, however Republicans are rising optimistic of sustaining their slim majority within the decrease chamber.
Congress at present has till Dec. 20 to move laws to stop a authorities shutdown earlier than the vacations. However meaning a severe time crunch for either side to hash out a deal to maintain the lights on — and most lawmakers aren’t saying which plan they would like.
A Home GOP management aide mentioned Thursday that it’s “likely” lawmakers will strive for one more stopgap throughout the lame-duck interval, together with a catastrophe support bundle that can embody {dollars} for the Federal Emergency Administration Company and the Small Enterprise Administration.
Outgoing Senate Republican Chief Mitch McConnell (Ky.) mentioned Wednesday that he thinks “deciding how to spend the discretionary money that we have” is “important.”
“And I would hope we would put a greater priority than the current Senate has on doing the basic work of government, which is deciding how much to spend and getting it done as close to regular order as possible,” he mentioned.
Nevertheless, McConnell moreover mentioned lawmakers will quickly “figure out how to finish up the year,” including, “that always involves a conversation between [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer and myself as to how we wrap it up — but those conversations haven’t started yet.”
One think about these conversations could also be whom Republicans select to interchange McConnell as GOP chief after his historic stint within the publish. Senate and Home Republicans each intend to carry management races subsequent week.
One other issue may very well be the formidable agenda Republicans are already mapping out for Trump’s first 100 days and whether or not they, and the president-elect, wish to add to it. They should tackle the nation’s debt restrict after they convene in January and have mentioned they may prioritize extending the tax cuts he enacted throughout his first time period, that are at present set to run out on the finish of 2025, amongst different plans.
Trump has not expressed a choice on the timing of a authorities funding invoice.
The query of how lengthy to increase authorities funding for emerged as a central sticking level in negotiations forward of the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline. An preliminary plan referred to as for a protecting the federal government funded on the earlier fiscal 12 months’s ranges by early subsequent 12 months, however Home Republicans weren’t capable of move the laws, and finally leaders settled on the Dec. 20 deadline.
Conservatives noticed the technique then as key to avoiding being jammed with an omnibus funding bundle filled with gadgets and funding ranges extra favorable to Democrats. Additionally they argued kicking the deadline into subsequent 12 months would permit Trump, if elected, a greater likelihood to have extra enter over how the federal government is funded for many of the coming 12 months.
However the six-month technique drew opposition from a number of corners of the convention. Protection hawks on the time argued freezing funding at fiscal 2024 ranges for half a 12 months would hurt the navy. Fiscal hawks, a few of whom are wholly against the very concept of a stopgap, had been additionally vital of the stopgap for persevering with funding at ranges they already felt had been extreme.
And a few appropriators referred to as for ending the fiscal 2025 funding work this 12 months.
Home Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) mentioned in September he thinks lawmakers ought to as a substitute deal with getting their funding work completed “and try and do it as expeditiously as possible.”
“I personally think it’s not a good thing to give a new president — and we’re going to have a new president — an immediate fiscal crisis,” Cole mentioned. “But again, that’s probably going to be up to the winner of the election, to be honest. If they want it, then Congress is always happy to pass the ball.”
Those self same intraparty rifts might pose comparable hurdles within the months forward as either side search for an answer to avert a shutdown subsequent month.
Republicans in each chambers have been drawing crimson traces across the prospect of a Christmastime omnibus funding bundle, which mixes all 12 authorities funding payments, amid fears from conservatives that’s the place Congress was headed after beforehand setting the Dec. 20 funding deadline.
“We have broken the Christmas omni, and I have no intention of going back to that terrible tradition,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) mentioned in September, whereas additionally ruling out the probabilities of any minibus packages, including: “We’re not going to do any buses.”
Nonetheless, although Democrats’ leverage over the funding course of considerably diminished with the election outcomes, their votes will possible be required to move authorities funding. Democrats at present management the Senate, and Home Republicans have been unable to move their very own funding payments with out Democratic votes.
That might maintain true even in January, and Republicans’ Senate majority will not be filibuster-proof.
White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre advised reporters Thursday that the Biden administration will focus its remaining days partly on tying up unfastened ends on the spending aspect, together with catastrophe reduction.
“I can tell you things that we’re going to focus on in the upcoming 74 days. We’re going to make sure that we keep the government open,” Jean-Pierre mentioned. “We’re going to deliver assistance for communities devastated by hurricanes Helen and Milton and other recent disasters.”
Nevertheless, she stopped wanting offering additional particulars as to how the administration would forestall a shutdown subsequent month as questions stay over how authorities funding and catastrophe reduction will likely be tackled earlier than Congress ushers in a brand new session come January.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the highest Democrat on the Home Appropriations Committee, mentioned Thursday that Congress ought to move a invoice this 12 months that covers most of 2025.
“It does not matter who is in the White House or who controls the House and the Senate. Close margins in the House next year—and the lack of a supermajority for Republicans in the Senate—mean Democrats and Republicans will still need to work together if we want to pass funding bills,” she mentioned. “Whether we do it now or wait until next year, no single chamber or political party can act alone to fund the programs and services hardworking Americans depend on. Leaving all our work for January is a mistake.”
