Lawmakers ready budget stopgap, eye leaving by end of week
Lawmakers plan to head home for the holidays by the end of the week, concluding the 114th Congress with a final kick-the-can exercise to fund the government into the spring.
Capitol Hill is set to become a ghost town after speedy moves this week to avoid a government shutdown by Friday. House Republicans plan to unveil a stopgap spending bill Tuesday, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters Monday. That suggests Congress will once again bump up against its funding deadline, with passage in the House on Thursday and in the Senate on Friday, assuming individual senators, and Democrats in particular, cooperate with the exit strategy.
“It’s just now being finished up,” McCarthy said. “I think we’re very close.”
The so-called continuing resolution is likely to keep the government open through April — a decision reached after consultation with President-elect Donald Trump’s team, which wants to put its imprint on spending decisions early next year. The House GOP had initially planned on funding the government only through March, but Senate Republicans asked for more time to make room for them to confirm Trump’s lengthy list of executive branch appointments.
The bill will keep the government on autopilot for more than half of fiscal 2017, though it will include a handful of policy and funding changes to provide some measure of flexibility to federal agencies. The Pentagon, for instance, is likely to receive more money for war operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as for some new weapons programs.
Democrats have blasted Republicans for failing to finish appropriations work during the lame duck, but they have no plans to truly disrupt the GOP’s plans. Still, Sen. Joe Manchin and several other Democratic senators issued a statement Monday vowing to block unanimous consent requests to speedily move legislation unless a bill to protect retired coal miners’ health and pension benefits is passed.
Before leaving, Congress will also clear a $6.3 billion bill known as the 21st Century Cures Act, which would speed up the Food and Drug Administration’s drug approval process and provide billions to the National Institutes of Health, in part to combat cancer and invest in precision medicine. The House passed the bill on a 392-26 vote last week, and the Senate is expected to follow suit by Wednesday.
Lawmakers also hope to pass a water infrastructure bill that would provide federal aid to Flint, Michigan. The help would come more than two years after a crisis involving lead-contaminated water first hit the city.