Congress struggles to lock down key funding deal before heading home 

Congress is struggling to lock down a deal on government funding with just days until lawmakers are set to leave town for the rest of the year, as both chambers appear to have given up on passing their own spending bills.

Lawmakers had been hopeful leadership would strike a deal last week on an overall top-line level for government funding in fiscal 2024 as part of the annual appropriations process. But as negotiations continue, lawmakers say leadership is cutting it close. Congress is staring down a shutdown deadline next month, with little legislative time on the calendar. 

At a press conference Tuesday, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said lawmakers are “all hands on deck on the appropriations bills,” noting the shutdown deadlines on the horizon.

“But what we also agreed to was what’s written in the law, and that’s the [Fiscal Responsibility Act] numbers on top lines,” Johnson also said, referring to legislation Congress passed earlier this year to raise the debt limit. 

The measure, negotiated between the Biden administration and House GOP leadership back in spring, suspended the debt ceiling into 2025, staving off the threat of what experts warned could be a cataclysmic default, while also setting budget caps for fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025.  

As part of the law, lawmakers agreed to a base discretionary spending cap of $1.59 trillion, or about $886 billion for defense spending and almost $704 billion for nondefense spending, for fiscal 2024. However, there is uncertainty on Capitol Hill around where other components of that agreement not reflected in the bill stand, including changes that the White House detailed earlier this year to offset further funding on the nondefense side.

While appropriators say it’s unclear what are all the factors contributing to the holdup, some see the handshake agreement as a key hurdle.

In his comments Tuesday, Johnson took aim at Senate Democrats over their appropriations work thus far, accusing the upper chamber of “projecting and writing well above” the spending cap agreed to in the debt ceiling law.

“That’s not what the law says, and so I came in as the new Speaker and I said, again, as the rule of law team, we’re going to follow the law,” he said. “So, that’s where negotiation stands.”

Meanwhile, Democrats have accused House Republicans of reneging on the full deal struck earlier this year, while also coming out fiercely against the prospect of a full-year stopgap bill to prevent a lapse in government funding in the weeks ahead.

Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said the backup plan, which has attracted support from some conservatives, could be harmful to the country’s national security, as well as hurt programs such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.

“The Speaker’s proposal would lock in outdated spending plans and devastating across-the-board cuts while locking all of us out of any kind of thoughtful decision-making process for our nation’s future, all of which should be unacceptable to everyone here,” she said last week. 

Last month, Congress agreed to temporarily freeze spending for certain agencies through mid-January and others until early February to allow time for both chambers to finish their funding work. 

Among the agencies under the Jan. 19 deadline are the departments of Agriculture; Veterans Affairs; Transportation (DOT); and Housing and Urban Development (HUD). 

Asked Monday whether he was confident Congress would meet the deadline, Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who chairs the House subcommittee that oversees funding for offices such as the Department of Interior, said he preferred a different word, given the current pace of work. 

“Confident? That’s another word I’m not really sure I want to use,” he told The Hill, though he added he was hopeful lawmakers would be able to meet the January deadline. 

Both chambers failed to pass all 12 funding bills after falling behind on annual funding work earlier in the year.

While Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), the Senate’s spending cardinal who oversees dollars for HUD and DOT, said “there’s a fair amount of enthusiasm” in the upper chamber for the Senate to move to pass its remaining nine funding bills, he acknowledged the “time crunch” Congress faces. 

As bicameral talks for a top-line agreement continue, the appropriator said he thinks Congress has until closer to the “end of the calendar year” to strike a top-line funding deal in time for them to conference and pass funding legislation to meet the January deadline. 

“Appropriators staff can do pretty quick work, but we don’t want to jam them up and cause them either heartache or precipitate a clerical error,” he told The Hill.

“There’s not that much writing to do, right. You’re negotiating over numbers for existing programs. So it’s not like you’re writing a new authorizing statute,” he said. “You’re just trying to figure out what number to plug into the existing law.” 

Congress has been bogged down in negotiations for further aid for Ukraine and Israel, as well as changes to border policy, while also working to pass a major annual defense authorization measure in the coming days.

But the clock is ticking, and leadership has been keeping its cards close as to how far both sides are to reach a deal.

Pressed Monday on whether there will be a top-line agreement this week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told The Hill: “I hope so, but we’re having some trouble with the House.”