WASHINGTON — Congress faces a Dec. 20 deadline to fund the federal government and avert a shutdown, and Speaker Mike Johnson says House Republicans will most likely push the battle into early 2025 quite than attain a full-year funding deal this yr.
“We’re operating out of clock. December 20 is the deadline. We’re nonetheless hopeful that we’d be capable to get that executed however, if not, we’ll have a short lived measure, I feel that will go into the primary a part of subsequent yr and permit us the mandatory time to get this executed,” Johnson mentioned on “Fox News Sunday.”
That would prolong the deadline into early in President-elect Donald Trump’s second time period. By then, Republicans may have taken management of the Senate from Democrats, whereas sustaining a slender House majority, giving them extra energy over federal funding for the rest of the fiscal yr.
“That can be, finally a very good transfer as a result of the nation would profit from it — as a result of then you definately’d have Republican management, and we’d have somewhat extra say in what these these spending payments are,” Johnson mentioned. “But the brand new reform agenda begins in earnest as quickly as President Donald J. Trump takes the workplace in January, and we have now a full agenda to run.”
Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, which is charged with writing funding payments, mentioned there’s nonetheless no “prime line” settlement between the events on how a lot the federal government ought to spend.
He mentioned it’ll seemingly be pushed into subsequent yr, January or March, with someday in March being extra seemingly.
“We had a gathering with the speaker earlier this week … he doesn’t suppose there’s any approach that we are able to end by the tip of the yr,” Aderholt mentioned. “I’ll be very shocked if we do something, if we get something resolved by the tip of the yr.”
But different Republicans disagree with that strategy and like to complete the funding deal this yr, to keep away from getting slowed down with it throughout Trump’s first 100 days. That is often the window when a president has most political capital and a few GOP senators would quite use that point to verify his nominees and advance their legislative priorities, from tax cuts to frame safety.
“I’d quite do it this yr,” Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., a member of the Appropriations Committee, mentioned of a funding settlement.
“I wish to have a scenario clear the deck in order that we don’t should cope with this subsequent yr,” Boozman mentioned. “With a brand new administration coming in … confirmations are going take a variety of time. So we’ll have that to cope with. And then then we must be truly engaged on the subsequent yr’s appropriations.”
But even when they push the battle to early 2025, Republicans gained’t have full management over spending selections. Government funding laws is topic to the 60-vote threshold within the Senate, which prime Republicans have promised to protect. That means they’ll have to achieve a cope with Democrats, who presently management the Senate and wish to move full-year funding this yr, not in 2025.
“There isn’t any cause for additional delay or to impair authorities companies by forcing them to function on autopilot for months to return,” Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., who will turn into vice chair in January, informed reporters. “We ought to move bipartisan, full-year spending payments earlier than the tip of the yr.”
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the incoming Appropriations Committee chair, informed NBC News: “I feel we are able to get a deal, and I feel it’s actually essential that we let the brand new administration have a clear slate and never be worrying about” this fiscal yr’s funding.
Still, if GOP leaders put ahead a stopgap invoice (also referred to as a unbroken decision or “CR”) quite than a full-year deal, it’s seemingly that Democrats would settle for it to stop a shutdown.
“We’ve supported, I’ve supported CRs previously. Let’s see what occurs,” mentioned Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., the No. 3 House Democrat. “Mike Johnson has been very clear that he’s going to take his cues from the incoming president. That just isn’t new to this subject, by the way in which, it has been one thing that has been constant, so we’ll see what the incoming administration has to say about it, and what the posture of our colleagues on the opposite facet of the aisle is over the subsequent few weeks.”
Some conservatives see one more reason for delay: to keep away from a Christmas-time “omnibus” invoice, combining all federal funding in a single large, last-minute bundle they don’t get to totally vet.
“The Speaker has mentioned he’s in opposition to an omnibus. A number of us are in opposition to an omnibus. We don’t wish to see any jamming via massive spending payments,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas mentioned, who mentioned the percentages are Congress will move a unbroken decision “into the early a part of the yr, into March” of 2025.
“The backside line is we’ve bought to manage spending and never enable there to be a runaway spending invoice in December,” he mentioned.
Boozman added that if Congress waits too lengthy to move a full-year funding invoice, it might pressure computerized cuts to navy and different applications that had been baked into the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.
“The different factor is that it’s going to set off the protection cuts, which I feel is a priority for plenty of members,” he mentioned.