House, Senate leaders vow to avoid shutdown but remain short of a deal
WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders emerged from a meeting with President Joe Biden on Tuesday saying they were optimistic about averting a partial government shutdown at the end of the week but remained short of a plan to do so before a Friday deadline.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA., who is facing intense pressure from Biden, Democrats and Senate Republicans to agree to a spending deal over the fierce objections of right-wing lawmakers in his ranks, suggested he might be ready to do so in the coming days.
“We have been working in good faith around the clock every single day, for months and weeks, and over the last several days, quite literally around the clock, to get that job done,” said Johnson, who met with the president one on one after participating in a group session with Biden and the other three top congressional leaders.
“We’re very optimistic,” he added, saying that preventing a shutdown was “our first responsibility.”
Sen. Mitch Mcconnell, R-KY., the minority leader, gave a similarly upbeat assessment to reporters at the Capitol.
“We are making some real headway on the appropriations process,” he said.
But it was not clear whether the progress would yield an agreement before midnight Friday, when government funding for several agencies is slated to lapse, with money for the remainder of federal agencies on track to run out March 8.
Johnson, under pressure from hardright Republicans, has refused to agree to spending legislation that does not include some of his party’s hard-line policy conditions, such as reversing a federal rule that aims to broaden access to abortion medication or a policy that could make it harder for some veterans deemed mentally ill to purchase guns.
Ultraconservatives have brought the government to the brink of a shutdown
or a partial shutdown three times in the past six months as they have sought more spending cuts and conservative policy conditions written into how federal money is spent.
Biden emphasized during the talks Tuesday that a bipartisan funding bill should be “free of any extreme policies,” according to a meeting summary provided by White House officials.
The talks came after Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader, announced Sunday that leaders had failed to reach a deal over the weekend because “House Republicans need more time to sort themselves out.” Johnson accused Senate Democrats of “attempting at this late stage to spend on priorities that are further left than what their chamber agreed upon.” He has not said to which priorities he is referring.
Johnson also came under intense pressure during the meeting over legislation to send aid to Ukraine, in a discussion that grew heated as Biden, the two Democratic leaders, and Mcconnell laid out an impassioned case for continuing to arm Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression. Johnson has so far refused to take up the $95 billion aid package the Senate passed earlier this month for Israel and Ukraine.
“The meeting on Ukraine was intense,” Schumer said. “Everyone in that room was telling Speaker Johnson how vital” sending aid was.
After the meeting, Johnson said of the foreign assistance bill that House Republicans were still “actively pursuing and investigating all the various options on that, and we will address that in a timely manner.”
But he reiterated his stance that the effort should take a back seat to immediate action to crack down on migration at the U.S. border with Mexico.
“The first priority of the country is our border and making sure it’s secure,” Johnson said. “I believe the president can take executive authority right now today to change that.”
Biden has been pressing for months for Congress to approve additional funding for Ukraine, arguing that without continued U.S. assistance, the country will run out of artillery, air defense weaponry and other munitions needed to prevail against Russia. The foreign aid bill passed by the Senate would provide more than $60 billion for Ukraine’s war effort, as well as about $14 billion in security assistance for Israel as it tries to wipe out Hamas after the terrorist attacks on Oct. 7.
“The consequences of inaction every day in Ukraine are dire,” Biden said before the meeting.
The White House has ramped up pressure on Johnson in recent weeks as Ukraine observed the second anniversary of the Russian invasion over the weekend. Biden continues to stress that President Vladimir Putin of Russia is a global threat.
“We said to the speaker, ‘Get it done,’” Schumer said. “History is looking over your shoulder, and if you don’t do the right thing, whatever the immediate politics are, you will regret it.”