It’s a pivotal week for the appropriations process as Congress looks to pass twelve spending bills before the Sept. 30 shutdown cliff.
Expect the Senate to work on passing its first batch of bills over the next few days, with full committee markups continuing in both chambers. In the House, appropriators plan to have a subcommittee markup of the bill funding the Treasury Department, the Judiciary and IRS Monday evening. No funding measures are currently on the House floor schedule.
Here’s what to watch as Republicans navigate the hurdles that could force them toward another stopgap funding bill.
DEM WATCH — All eyes are going to be on Democrats as they discuss whether to use the one point of leverage they have: the 60 votes needed to pass appropriations bills in the Senate. But Democrats don’t appear to have a solidified plan yet.
White House Budget Director Russ Vought last week said point-blank he was satisfied to see a less bipartisan appropriations process than in years past, a comment that could embolden congressional Republicans who want to put their conservative mark on the appropriations process.
Democrats have voiced their disapproval with the trajectory of government funding negotiations, specifically with Trump officials and their Hill allies for freezing, canceling and now clawing back funding Congress already approved. So far, however, they have stopped short of threatening a government shutdown on Oct.1 if Republicans don’t change course.
It was a dilemma Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer faced back in March. He ultimately faced significant heat from his base over his decision that the consequences of a shutdown would be worse than letting the Trump administration continue to run roughshod over Congress’ “power of the purse.”
“To be blunt, I don’t think there’s one tactic or approach that is going to solve this from any individual Democrat,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), a top appropriator, said in an interview. “The Republicans have to decide whether they want to be totally lobotomized or not.”
AUGUST RECESS — Senate Majority Leader John Thune was already considering making a dent in the government funding process before the month-long August break. Now, President Donald Trump is calling on the Senate to stay through the recess to continue confirming his nominees, which would give Thune an opportunity to get more work done on appropriations, too.
Not everyone wants that. Many Republican lawmakers are eager to get back to their districts for the state work period to highlight wins from the GOP megabill — and provide counterprogramming to Democratic messaging about the deep Medicaid cuts in the new law. That summer sales pitch is a top priority for many senators.
FREEDOM CAUCUS — Then, there’s the Freedom Caucus, which has been known to swoop in at the eleventh hour to undermine carefully-constructed legislative dealmaking with hard-line demands. Reps. French Hill (R-Ark.) and G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) — chairs of the Financial Services and Agriculture panels, respectively — got a strong taste of that tactic while attempting to pass cryptocurrency bills last week.
“It is an operational change from how Congress has historically operated, where, if the Chairman and the committee blessed it, everybody just said, ‘okay,’” said Freedom Caucus member and Florida Rep. Byron Donalds to reporters in the middle of last week’s crypto drama. “That’s just not the way Congress is working anymore.”
The group has notoriously forced House Republicans to rely on Democrats to shore up the necessary votes to pass government funding bills. If the faction’s hard-liners once again insist on lowering spending levels or inserting conservative policy riders in this year’s appropriations bills, that could prove to be a problem for Republicans — and put even more pressure on House Democrats to decide if they’re going to bail out the GOP or force a shutdown.
What else we’re watching:
— DHS gavel race: Members of the House GOP Steering panel will make their recommendation for a new Homeland Security chair Monday evening to fill the vacancy to be left by Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) once he retires from Congress. Up for consideration: GOP Reps. Carlos Giménez of Florida, Michael Guest of Mississippi, Andrew Garbarino of New York and Clay Higgins of Louisiana.
— More immigration bills: Now that they’ve passed their sweeping domestic policy bill that would turbocharge border enforcement activities, House Republicans are turning to legislation that would further crack down on illegal immigration. The House is set to take up legislation this week sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.) that would increase penalties on immigrants who illegally enter the country and then reenter the U.S. after being removed.
Jennifer Scholtes, Nicholas Wu and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.
