Senate

GOP eyes two-week stopgap spending bill as deadline looms

by Jordain Carney and Juliegrace Brufke - 12/03/18 1:40 PM ET

Congressional Republicans are considering a two-week stopgap funding bill as they barrel toward a Friday night deadline to avert a partial government shutdown.

A GOP leadership aide told The Hill on Monday that the House is expected to pass a two-week continuing resolution (CR) by voice vote after the chamber announced it was canceling votes for the week following the death of former President George H.W. Bush.

{mosads}Bush’s death is scrambling Congress’s schedule and increased the likelihood that lawmakers will be able to easily clear a stopgap spending measure for the seven appropriations bills that lawmakers failed to pass by Sept. 30.

President Trump opened the door to delaying the shutdown fight over the weekend when he said he would likely accept up to a two-week CR if leadership requested one since Washington is expected to spend much of the week mourning Bush. A two-week funding bill would push the shutdown deadline to Dec. 21, a week after Congress was expected to wrap up its work for the year.

A spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about if Senate Democrats will accept a two-week CR.

Republicans have not yet introduced the stopgap measure.

Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said Monday that Republicans had not made a final decision on the duration of the funding bill.

“I think we’re trying to figure that out, is the length of the CR,” he said, adding that there are “pluses and minuses” to both a one-week stopgap bill and a two-week measure.

“The longer the CR means the longer we’ll be around here, and I think everybody would like to at some point go home for Christmas and not be here Christmas Eve. That’s sort of what’s being discussed, but no decision,” he said when asked if Republicans preferred a two-week continuing resolution.

Congress was widely expected to need a stopgap bill to fund part of the government past Friday night as both sides remain far apart on a fight over funding for Trump’s proposed border wall.

Schumer and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (N.Y.) were scheduled to meet with Trump on Tuesday to discuss the funding fight, but the meeting has since been delayed in the wake of Bush’s death.

Tags Chuck Schumer Donald Trump John Cornyn Nancy Pelosi