Senate

Senate Dems pan talk of short-term spending bill

by Jordain Carney 11/29/16 07:20 PM ET

Senate Democrats are slamming a GOP plan to pass a continuing resolution (CR) ahead the Dec. 9 deadline to fund the government, but stopped short of pledging to block it.

“We should be working in a bipartisan appropriation’s bill to set our priorities for the rest of the year. But instead, we’re going to pass yet another continued resolution,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters. “That’s not governing, it’s irresponsible, it’s wasteful and unfair to the American people.”

{mosads}Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, predicted Tuesday that a short-term CR, instead of a year-long bill, would likely pass the Senate, but warned that it would be “devastating.”

“Continued resolution for three months, five months, six months whatever it turns out to be, will be at the expense of some critical investments in our national defense,” he said.

House Republicans are eying a short-term spending bill that would expire at the end of March. The move would allow the incoming Donald Trump administration to weigh in on spending levels for the rest of the fiscal year.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hasn’t publicly signed on to the details of the CR, but signaled that the Senate will take up a short-term bill.

“There’s the question of the continuing resolution that we’re in discussions with the House about that,” he told reporters. “And I don’t have anything to announce today about exactly what form that’s gonna take but obviously, we’re gonna deal with that before we leave here on Dec. 9.”

Democrats and the White House prefer a long-term omnibus spending bill.

But Senate Democrats are stopping short of pledging to block the government funding bill in the upper chamber, where Republicans will need the support of at least six Democrats.

In addition to Reid and Durbin, Democrat Sens. Barbara Mikulski (Md.), the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, Patrick Leahy (Vt.) and Brian Schatz (Hawaii) took to the Senate floor to voice their disappointment about taking up a CR.

Mikulski, who is retiring at the end of the year, urged the Senate to take up a longer CR, arguing it could benefit the incoming administration.

“I’m concerned that we will not finish our job on appropriations the way we should finish it,” she said. “Really to do an omnibus, to get the job done, but alas, the clock is slipping away.”

A small number of Senate Republicans have distanced themselves from the short-term spending bill.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, called the CR a “disgrace” late last week.

“Put simply, this cockamamie idea, this abrogation of our responsibilities called a continuing resolution would shortchange American troops,” he said from the Senate floor.