House GOP may merge government funding, debt ceiling fights

House GOP leaders are discussing a two- to three-month spending measure that could consolidate clashes over funding the government with a potentially messy battle over raising the nation’s debt limit.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told the GOP conference on Thursday that he would try to quickly push through a short-term spending measure when lawmakers return to Washington in September, just weeks before the current funding agreement expires.

{mosads}Most recent estimates suggest that Washington will have to grapple with raising the $16.7 trillion debt ceiling by late October or early November. By pushing government funding past that period, top Republicans would be able to postpone crucial fiscal fights, like the funding of President Obama’s healthcare law and the sequester, and set up a broader fiscal confrontation.

The short-term spending measure, Boehner said, would continue to fund the government at current levels and would incorporate the sequester cuts. Top Democrats like House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.) have signaled that they would open to that sort of proposal.

GOP aides have stressed that no final decisions have been made on the length of the next continuing resolution, and Boehner and other GOP leaders declined on Thursday’s conference call with members to address a push from dozens of conservatives to link government funding to their efforts to defund ObamaCare.