Top House conservative calls for combined appropriations bills free of debt ceiling increase

Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.), the chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC), said Monday that he supports combining the eight remaining appropriations bills for 2018 into one piece of legislation.

“This decision to consolidate appropriations is the best option available with weeks left before the end of the fiscal year,” Walker said in a statement. 

But Walker warned against rolling other issues into the legislation, a likely reference to the impending debt ceiling deadline that coincides with the spending deadline.

{mosads}“Unlike the appropriations process, the House should consider each of these challenges independently on the merits of the policy, not politics, and not in a consolidated fashion that forces us into a take-it-or-leave-it vote on such substantial issues before the House,” he said.

Conservatives have insisted that spending cuts be attached to the unpopular, must-pass debt ceiling increase.

To avoid a catastrophic default, Congress must address the debt ceiling by Sept. 29. Without congressional action, the government would run out of funding two days later as the 2017 fiscal year ends, prompting a shutdown.

Congress is out for the rest of August, and has just 12 legislative days scheduled for September, so the window to accomplish such major efforts is closing.

That dynamic makes it more likely that the spending and debt issues will be addressed together. Both will need some measure of Democratic support to pass in the Senate.

Democrats have been needling Republicans for their inability to move forward on their agenda, including a failure to make significant progress on the budget and debt issues.

“Two hundred days into the Trump Administration, the President has offered nothing but broken promises and failed leadership,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Monday.