Another short-term spending bill?

GOP leaders may have no choice in face of deadline

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — With a shutdown deadline looming Feb. 8 and no long-term deal at hand, congressional GOP leaders said Thursday they will have to pass yet another short-term spending bill next week to keep the government open.

House GOP leaders are eyeing a spending bill through March 22, aides said, though that date could change. It would have to pass early next week, ahead of the shutdown deadline next Thursday at midnight.

That’s when government funding would run out if Congress doesn’t act, which would trigger another shutdown like the one last month.

As Republicans gathered at the Greenbrier retreat in West Virginia for their annual retreat, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., insisted that the government would stay open. The three-day partial shutdown in late January was precipitated by Senate Democrats’ demands for protections for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.

“I don’t think we’ll see a threatened government shutdown again over this subject,” McConnell said. “One of my favorite old Kentucky country sayings is ‘there’s no education in the second kick of a mule,’ so I think there’ll be a new level of seriousness here in trying to resolve these issues.”

Even so, it seemed unlikely that House and Senate negotiators would be able to strike the bipartisan, two-year budget deal they’re striving for ahead of Feb. 8. Even if they do, lawmakers would need weeks to turn agreedupon figures into complete spending bills for all the agencies of government.

Next week’s stopgap legislation would be the fifth short-term “continuing resolution” of this fiscal year, a situation that’s causing frustration and finger-pointing on all sides. That includes within GOP ranks, which could jeopardize passage of the continuing resolution as conservative lawmakers and defense hawks both threatened Thursday to withhold their votes.

Rep. Mark Meadow, R-N.C., who chairs the conservative Freedom Caucus in the House, said his group might not support another short-term spending bill without promises of action on higher military spending levels and other issues.

“I don’t see the probability of the Freedom Caucus supporting a fifth CR without substantial changes by Feb. 8 unless we see dramatic changes,” Meadows told reporters. “We’ve had the land of promise for four times now on CRs. It’s time to put some real commitment to the effort before a fifth CR.”