Fox News has reported that House and Senate Democrats have less than two weeks to find a way to fund the government past December 16th, and may be forced to level-fund the government if they can’t convince Republicans to expand federal spending in some areas as part of a full-year “omnibus” spending bill.
Outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said last week that her “strong preference” is to pass a bill providing money for the rest of fiscal year 2023, but admitted that may not be possible, and that a “continuing resolution” that leaves current funding levels in place might be the only option.
House Democrats can pass whatever spending they like as long as they stick together, but legislation that focuses only on Democratic priorities would likely get held up in the Senate, where 10 Republicans are needed to pass a bill.
Pressure is growing on Senate Republicans not to accept any full-year funding bill, and to wait until Republicans take control of the House next year. Last week, Sens.
Mike Lee of Utah, Ted Cruz of Texas, Rick Scott of Florida and Mike Braun of Indiana told Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to reject an omnibus bill and wait until the GOP takes control of the House.
They wrote, “We believe it would be both imprudent, and a reflection of poor leadership, for Republicans to ignore the will of the American people and rubber stamp an omnibus spending bill that funds 10 more months of President Biden’s agenda without any check on his reckless policies that have led to a 40-year high in inflation.”
Fox News has suggested that these sorts of pressures will make it difficult for leaders on the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to work out possible outlines to an omnibus spending bill, and might even make it difficult to agree to a year-long CR.
The Senate letter said specifically that the Senate should only accept a short-term funding bill that lets the GOP-run House figure out spending plans for the rest of the year, which would likely result in a more aggressive stance on spending and could lead to proposals for cutting back some of the Democrats’ pet projects.
Some Republicans are already unhappy that Republican leaders are working with Democrats in any way on a spending deal. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, tweeted Monday that Senate GOP leadership is “working overtime to try to pass an omnibus spending bill in collusion with Democrats rather than a short term continuing resolution… right after joining with Democrats to undermine marriage & religious liberty.”
Fox News believes that President Biden and the Democrats need to be reined in, and that their reckless spending needs to be stopped before it’s too late.
The only way to do this is to ensure that Republicans maintain control of the House, and are able to prevent the Democrats from passing their dangerous spending bills.
