A bipartisan Senate agreement would maintain most federal spending through Dec. 11, postpone a shutdown fight until after the midterm elections and temporarily block several disputed administration funding policies.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Senate leaders released a temporary government funding agreement Sunday designed to keep federal agencies operating through the midterm elections and prevent another shutdown while lawmakers return home for the August campaign season.
The legislation would generally continue federal spending at current levels through Dec. 11, giving Congress additional time to negotiate the 12 annual appropriations bills needed to finance the government for the full fiscal year.
Senators are expected to consider the measure before leaving Washington at the end of the week for their traditional August recess. Many lawmakers facing reelection are eager to spend that period campaigning in their states rather than remaining in the capital for another government funding standoff.
The House previously passed a similar stopgap measure, but its version did not contain several exceptions requested by the White House. Senate negotiators spent recent days determining which administration proposals would be included or rejected.
Among the requests omitted from the Senate agreement was $1 billion sought by the administration to begin construction of what officials described as “Trump-class” battleships, according to Democrats involved in the negotiations.
The Senate bill also differs from the House measure by including restrictions intended to prevent the administration from shifting money from other federal programs to the Border Patrol. Democrats said the language would stop officials from bypassing congressional spending decisions by transferring funds between accounts.
Congressional action on a temporary funding bill this early is unusual. Lawmakers frequently wait until immediately before a deadline to approve short-term extensions, sometimes completing agreements only hours before federal agencies would begin shutting down.
This time, senators are moving nearly two months before the current fiscal year expires Sept. 30.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said completing the extension before the August recess was his highest immediate priority. He pointed to two lengthy federal shutdowns experienced by the public during the previous 10 months.
“We need to ensure that they do not face a third,” Thune said.
The temporary measure is necessary because Congress has not completed work on the dozen individual appropriations bills that collectively fund federal departments and programs. Extending current spending through Dec. 11 would allow lawmakers to continue negotiating those bills without interrupting government operations.
Reaching a full-year agreement is expected to be difficult. Republicans are seeking a major expansion of defense spending alongside reductions in domestic and other nondefense programs.
President Donald Trump proposed cutting overall nondefense spending by 10% while increasing defense expenditures by approximately 44%. Those competing priorities are expected to produce significant disagreements within Congress over how federal money should be allocated.
Leaders in both parties are seeking to avoid a shutdown immediately before voters cast ballots in the midterm elections. Polling following last fall’s record 43-day shutdown indicated that neither Republicans nor Democrats escaped political blame.
That shutdown developed after Democrats demanded an extension of an expiring health insurance tax credit and refused to support a temporary funding measure that omitted the provision. Republicans maintained that the tax credit should be handled separately from legislation needed to keep the government open.
Congress later faced another prolonged dispute over Department of Homeland Security funding. That fight lasted 76 days as Democrats opposed financing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol without changes to their operations.
The latest negotiations also addressed a proposed Trump administration rule governing federal grants.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, joined Democratic senators in seeking limits on the policy. The proposal would require a senior political appointee at every federal agency to review discretionary grant applications using standards that include “ensuring that discretionary awards advance the President’s policy priorities.”
Collins and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said the rule would be prevented from taking effect for the duration of the temporary spending legislation.
Collins said she pushed the administration to make substantial revisions because of the rule’s “potential to politicize grants and harm small, rural communities, families, and biomedical research.”
Democrats have called for the proposal to be withdrawn entirely, arguing that a temporary suspension does not resolve their underlying concerns.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer described the initiative as a “disgraceful” attempt that would “further politicize all federal grants.”
“While Republicans rejected killing the proposed rule outright, I’m going to keep fighting to put a stop to it once and for all, and I will keep pressing my Republican colleagues to do exactly that,” Murray said.
Democratic lawmakers contend the review process could allow the administration to withhold federal grants from political opponents, favor allies and weaken Congress’ constitutional authority over spending.
The White House Office of Management and Budget has defended the proposal as an accountability measure intended to ensure federal grants support administration priorities and prevent taxpayer money from being wasted or misused.
Although the Senate deal would postpone several disputes, it would not resolve the broader fights over defense, domestic spending, immigration enforcement, health policy and executive control of grants. Those issues would return as lawmakers work toward a full-year funding package before the Dec. 11 deadline.
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