Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard ShelbyRichard Craig ShelbySenators have chance to double funding for women entrepreneurs—they should take it On The Money: Trump dismisses ‘phony Emoluments Clause’ after Doral criticism | Senate Dems signal support for domestic spending package | House panel to consider vaping tax Senate Dems signal they’ll support domestic spending package MORE (R-Ala.) on Wednesday said deadlock over spending negotiations would likely require Congress to pass a new funding stopgap measure, called a continuing resolution (CR), to prevent a shutdown after Nov. 21.
“Unless a miracle happens around here with the House and Senate, we will have to put forth another CR,” Shelby said.
While the eight-week stopgap extended funding past the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1, Shelby said rumors of a longer CR into February or March were “probably in the ballpark.”
The prospect that the House would impeach President TrumpDonald John TrumpGraham to introduce resolution condemning House impeachment inquiry Support for impeachment inches up in poll Fox News’s Bret Baier calls Trump’s attacks on media ‘a problem’ MORE and the Senate would have to take up a trial, he said, added to the need for a longer stopgap.
While the House has passed 10 of its 12 annual spending bills, the Senate has not yet succeeded in passing a single funding bill, largely due to disagreements over Trump’s proposed border wall.
On Tuesday, the Senate introduced a package of four smaller, noncontroversial spending bills and is expected to begin the process of voting on amendments next week.
But the chances of getting any spending bills signed into law in the near future remain slim. Shelby and his House counterpart, Rep. Nita LoweyNita Sue LoweyOvernight Defense: Trump weighs leaving some troops in Syria to ‘secure the oil’ | US has pulled 2,000 troops from Afghanistan | Pelosi leads delegation to Afghanistan, Jordan Trump officials say aid to Puerto Rico was knowingly stalled after Hurricane Maria McConnell tees up government funding votes amid stalemate MORE (D-N.Y.), have been negotiating how to divvy up spending between the 12 appropriations bills, with particular controversy arising over wall-related allocations that Democrats say pull funding from other priorities.
On Tuesday, House Majority Leader Steny HoyerSteny Hamilton HoyerThis week: Tensions flare over Schiff, impeachment inquiry House Republicans ‘demand the release of the rules’ on impeachment Scalise, Cole introduce resolution to change rules on impeachment MORE (D-Md.) emphasized the need to reach agreement on the allocations before putting any agreed-upon spending bills to a vote, a condition that dampens the chances of near-term progress on even noncontroversial bills.
A return to regular order for even a few bills, Shelby said, would require a “very, very optimistic” outlook.
In the meantime, the Senate Appropriations Committee has yet to release the spending bill dealing with military construction and veterans affairs, which is stuck over Democratic insistence against backfilling project funds that Trump redirected toward building the wall under emergency powers.
The committee has also not yet marked up a bill covering the department of Labor and Health and Human Services, which is second in size only to defense, over abortion-related issues. Democrats have objections to cuts they say were made to accommodate new wall funding.
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