Congressional leaders are still sparring over the details of tens of billions of dollars in disaster aid they plan to attach to a stopgap spending bill before federal funding expires at the end of next week.
As Congress prepares to punt the spending cliff into President-elect Donald Trump’s second term, negotiators are in a crucial stage before the Dec. 20 shutdown deadline on what might be added to the last major bill Congress is expected to clear before year’s end.
While top Republicans and Democrats agree that a massive disaster aid package should be attached to the stopgap, they have argued over the specifics of that plan following the White House’s request last month for more than $98 billion in emergency funding to aid recovery from natural disasters, including hurricanes Helene and Milton.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Tuesday that Democrats have “included some things that are extraneous and not really disaster.”
The spending patch is expected to expire sometime in March, keeping federal agencies running on flat funding levels in Congress’ second punt since missing the Oct. 1 deadline for finalizing a spending agreement.
Top lawmakers are aiming to release bill text before next week, to give the House a couple days to pass the legislation before Senate leaders seek fast-tracked passage to avoid a short funding lapse ahead of Christmas and the start of Hanukkah.
Maine Republican Susan Collins, the top GOP appropriator in the Senate, said Monday night that funding negotiators “worked all weekend” exchanging offers on the disaster aid package. “And we’re at the point where we’re in serious negotiations and trading,” she added. “Nothing is final yet.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), whose state was devastated by Hurricane Helene, is estimating the disaster bill will total less than the roughly $100 billion the White House requested, “but not too far south” of that amount.
Some House Republicans, including Scalise and Appropriations Chair Tom Cole, have pointed out parts of the White House disaster aid request that they deem extraneous, including funding for climate and education projects. Cole said Tuesday that funding negotiators are now “closing the gaps” on disaster aid.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday that he “remains hopeful and determined” that a deal can be reached on disaster aid, “with a serious show of bipartisan cooperation.”
Many conservative Republicans want to punt the funding deadline into March to give the Trump administration a chance to weigh in, with the added pressure of across-the-board cuts that would kick in at the end of April if Congress doesn’t finish its funding work, as prescribed by last year’s debt limit deal.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said Tuesday that a March deadline would give Republicans a chance to “constrain spending in the first part of the year, which is what I hope we would do.”
Republican appropriators in both chambers, including Cole and Collins, would like Congress to finish the 12 spending bills before March, regardless of the deadline.
“I’m aiming for as soon as we can,” Cole said. “Because I just think we’re gonna have so much stuff to do, but I think just getting it off the plate would be a good place to be.”
Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.
