Republican leaders from both sides of the Capitol will on Wednesday endeavor to settle on a unified GOP plan for approaching government funding negotiations with Democrats ahead of the March government shutdown deadline.
House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole said in an interview late Tuesday night that he and Speaker Mike Johnson are hoping to land an agreement with their Senate counterparts on “a path forward” on how to fund government programs. “The best-case scenario is that we walk out united about what we need to do,” the Oklahoma Republican said about the planned Wednesday confab with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine).
While Cole said the government funding talks are “not a competition between the Senate and House,” he touted the House Republican victory in approving their budget resolution on Tuesday as bolstering Johnson’s stance in discussions with Collins and Thune.
“The speaker pulled off a big win tonight, so I think he’s in a much stronger position as we sit down tomorrow,” he said. “This is no disrespect to the Senate: I think we’re the decisive chamber.”
With federal funding set to run out in 17 days, top lawmakers in both parties have started to preemptively lay blame for a potential government shutdown. While Republicans and Democrats say they are close to a “topline” deal to set overall totals for military and non-defense programs, Democrats continue to demand conditions to restrict President Donald Trump’s ability to withhold funding Congress has appropriated — an ultimatum House GOP leaders say is a nonstarter that could spur a funding lapse come March 14 if the other party holds firm to that stipulation.
“If you want a numbers deal, we can get there. If you want us to try and bind the president of the United States, we’re not going to do that,” Cole said.
The Oklahoma Republican said Democrats have “bargained in good faith,” however, and that he and Collins “still very much want to negotiate a deal with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle.”
Cole and the dozen Republican “cardinals” who chair the funding panels on his committee met earlier Tuesday night with Johnson, ahead of the vote on the budget resolution.
“The speaker left all options on the table,” Cole said. “He explained where we’re at.”
If top lawmakers can’t hatch a bipartisan deal to fund the government in the next two and a half weeks, Cole warns that lawmakers will be forced to clear a “full-year” stopgap that keeps federal cash flowing at current levels through September. And even if an overall funding agreement is reached soon, Congress is likely to need at least a short-term funding patch to wrap up more granular negotiations on each of the dozen funding bills.
