Instead, legislators privately say another temporary spending extension could be necessary to avert a partial shutdown that could ripple into the winder economy. Roughly 20 percent of the federal government will close on March 2 without action. A deadline for the remaining 80 percent awaits just a week later.
Already, Congress has passed stopgap spending legislation three times since Sept. 30 as government funding debates revealed internecine brawls in the House GOP and tested the party’s brittle and minuscule majority.
President Biden summoned House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) to the White House for a meeting Tuesday to discuss the shutdown deadlines and the White House’s push to pass new defense assistance for Ukraine.
Even a partial shutdown would trouble federal food assistance programs — including WIC, an emergency nutrition program for women, infants and children that is already contending with a budget shortfall. Air traffic controllers would remain on the job, but would go unpaid. Federal housing vouchers, which support 5 million families, could be temporarily endangered. Government scientists would stop tracing and studying animal-borne diseases.
“The stakes really couldn’t be higher. A breastfeeding mother knows all too well the feeling of how hungry you get. The sound of a newborn baby crying because they don’t have enough formula, that is a sound that all parents know,” said Allison Johnson, campaign director of advocacy group ParentsTogether Action. “It’s pretty harrowing to think that could be happening across the board.”
The second government shutdown deadline on March 9 would hit the Defense and State departments, border security operations, the Justice Department and FBI, workplace safety regulators and national health officials.
That means the odds of a climatic showdown at the Capitol are growing: Biden is set to deliver his State of the Union address March 7, with lawmakers potentially still stuck on a plan to fund the government.
The federal fiscal year began Oct. 1, but so far, Congress has had to fund government operations through short-term measures that keep programs going on last year’s budget, rather than with fresh legislation that sets new spending levels.
Johnson and Schumer agreed in January to spend $1.7 trillion on so-called discretionary programs for the year, and then later agreed on how much money each broad sector of the government should spend, but they haven’t been able to reach a deal on specific spending legislation.
Leaders of the Democratic-controlled Senate had hoped to release text for legislation on Sunday night that would cover the agencies whose funding will expire first, according to a person familiar with negotiations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the fragile talks.
But that plan failed to materialize. The House GOP, its narrow majority already restive over spending, may be even less enthused about the potential deal now: Johnson, in a call with his Republican conference on Friday night, said the legislation his chamber had negotiated with Schumer contained plenty of conservative “singles and doubles” for policy provisions, but no “home runs or grand slams.”
In a letter to senators Sunday, Schumer said House Republicans “need more time to sort themselves out” before they could agree to spending bills.
“Unfortunately, extreme House Republicans have shown they’re more capable of causing chaos than passing legislation,” Schumer wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Washington Post. “It is my sincere hope that in the face of a disruptive shutdown that would hurt our economy and make American families less safe, Speaker Johnson will step up to once again buck the extremists in his caucus and do the right thing.”
Johnson said in a statement that Schumer’s letter contained “counterproductive rhetoric,” and that Senate Democrats had made surprise policy demands in negotiations.
“Our…
Read More: Deal to dodge government shutdown appears to stall amid GOP policy demands