CONGRESS MAY NEED TO OK SHORT-TERM FUNDING LAW

Senate leaders warn delays could spur partial shutdown

Congress may need to pass a temporary government funding bill before a looming deadline to prevent a partial shutdown — even though leaders announced a spending deal over the weekend meant to keep the government open.

Funding for roughly 20 percent of the federal government — including for essential programs such as some veterans assistance, and food and drug safety services — expires on Jan. 19, and money for the rest of the government runs out shortly after that, on Feb. 2.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., on Sunday agreed to spend $1.66 trillion in the 2024 fiscal year, which ends in September. But that agreement left mere days to pass several spending bills, each worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Those measures will face steep opposition from far-right House Republicans who have demanded budget cuts and called the Johnson-Schumer deal a “total failure.” Any delays could push the government into at least a partial shutdown, if Congress cannot act before the deadlines.

That means lawmakers may need to enact a stopgap spending measure, known as a continuing resolution or CR, Senate leaders of both parties said Tuesday.

“We are all working nonstop right now to get this done, but we are obviously crunched for time,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chair of the Appropriations Committee, told reporters.

“They have a top-line agreement, Schumer and the speaker. In the meantime, we need to prevent a government shutdown,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said. “The obvious question is how long does the CR need to be? That will be up to the majority leader and the speaker, to determine the length of the CR.”

At the Senate’s usual plodding pace, passing a single spending bill takes a week, at best — let alone the four that must pass by Jan. 19 to prevent a partial shutdown. Lawmakers still need to allocate funds among the 12 appropriations — or longterm financing — bills. Then they need to draft the legislative texts, a cumbersome legalistic process, and members need time to review the measures. In the Senate, each bill needs support from at least 60 members in a process that could require as many as 30 hours of debate to dodge a filibuster.

That process takes far less time in the House, where leaders can exert more control over the floor and ram legislation through rapidly.

“The simplest things take a week in the Senate,” McConnell said, “so I think frequently the House doesn’t understand how long it takes to get something through the Senate.”

But Johnson, who has only held the speakership since late October, has struggled to corral his raucous Republican conference. He’s especially tussled recently with the volatile and archconservative House Freedom Caucus, which ousted his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, RBakersfield, over spending issues. (McCarthy retired from Congress at the end of 2023.)

President Joe Biden and McCarthy last spring made a deal to suspend the nation’s debt limit in exchange for limiting discretionary spending to $1.59 trillion in 2024, with 1 percent growth in 2025 and another $69 billion each year to account for inflation.

But far-right Republicans have repeatedly rejected that arrangement, requiring Johnson and McCarthy to lean on Democrats to avert government shutdowns. House Republicans have signaled that they may throw up roadblocks to passing the current budget deal, leading senators to call for a CR for more time to legislate.