With spending talks in flux, shutdown showdown looms

WASHINGTON—House Republicans’ plan to pass a full-year defense appropriations bill with a continuing resolution for remaining agencies through Jan. 19 was supposed to be an easy lift, a measure designed to show the Senate their unified support for increased national security funding.

But as the House prepares to vote on the spending bill today, just two days before the Dec. 22 government funding deadline, GOP divisions over the $81 billion disaster supplemental that leadership hoped to attach to the so-called “CRomnibus” has effectively weakened House’s negotiating leverage.

Leadership announced their plan to attach the supplemental to the spending bill during the weekly House Republican Conference meeting Tuesday, prompting members to grouse that the supplemental was not offset with cuts elsewhere.

By the end of the day GOP leaders were conducting a whip check to see if there was enough support for their plan. Chief Deputy Whip Patrick McHenry told Roll Call after the last vote series during which the whip was conducted that the bills may need to move separately.

“There’s no ideological commitment to the structure of these three pieces we have to move,” the North Carolina Republican said of the CRomnibus, disaster supplemental and reauthorization of government surveillance powers under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Leadership had already decided to move the FISA piece separately from the CRomnibus in the face of GOP opposition. Now it appears they may need to have three separate votes, or they may decide to combine the disaster supplemental with the FISA bill.

“The question of how to get this package over to the Senate (is) very open, very fluid,” McHenry said.

With Democrats planning to oppose the CRomnibus, Republicans have little room for error. The measure also includes funds for the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Veterans Choice program, both of which are running short of cash.

Leadership decided to attach the disaster supplemental to the CRomnibus after lawmakers from hurricane-ravaged areas in Texas and Florida and wildfire decimated areas of California threatened to withhold their votes for the spending bill if the House didn’t also pass the disaster aid.

“Those members are very happy with how this supplemental has come together,” House Majority Whip Steve Scalise said.

But the inclusion of the disaster aid might have pushed away conservatives. Scalise said early Tuesday the whip team was talking to those members.

One of those who spoke with Scalise was Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows. He said after their morning conversation that Freedom Caucus member were open to backing the supplemental as an attachment to the CRomnibus if there were changes made to the FISA measure to ensure there wasn’t unwarranted spying on Americans.

But by the end of the day, that proposal appeared to be off the table.

“I think there’s a deal worked out with the Democrats is what I understand, a bipartisan deal on FISA reauthorization is what I’m hearing,” Meadows said.

Meadows said most Freedom Caucus members want separate votes on FISA and the supplemental and he would be surprised if leadership has the votes to attach the disaster aid to the CRomnibus.

“I’m struggling with it,” Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker said of the idea of a combined measure. The $81 billion supplemental would bring the total spent on disaster relief this year to $138 billion, or “about 20 percent of the entire Obama stimulus package,” the North Carolina Republican said.

Whether it moves separately from the disaster supplemental or not, GOP leaders are planning to pass the CRomnibus on Wednesday, knowing it’s just one of many hurdles they’ll have to clear in the next few days to avoid a government shutdown.

The Senate is not planning to accept the House measure, and is expected to volley it back with changes. Exactly what those changes are remains to be decided but the defense appropriations bill is likely to be stripped and the continuing resolution portion altered to include defense funding. Such a change is needed to prevent a Democratic filibuster of the bill, as is removal of GOP offsets to the CHIP funding.