Congressional leaders are still clashing over legislation to prevent a disastrous government shutdown at the end of the month, with House Democrats releasing a bill on Monday that Republicans swiftly panned for a lack of relief to help farmers cope with President Donald Trump’s trade policies.
“House Democrats’ rough draft of a government funding bill shamefully leaves out key relief and support that American farmers need,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tweeted. “This is no time to add insult to injury and defund help for farmers and rural America.”
The short-term spending fix introduced by House Democrats would avert a government shutdown on Sept. 30 and keep federal agencies funded through Dec. 11. Both sides appear to agree on an end date for the continuing resolution, which would extend current government funding levels and buy more time for negotiations on a slate of fiscal 2021 spending bills.
But far more contentious has been the debate over which policy and funding exceptions should be included, also known as anomalies. Before unveiling the text, Democrats removed tens of billions of dollars in trade aid for farmers requested by the White House, in addition to billions of dollars in pandemic-related food assistance for families that they supported. Republicans never signed off on the removal of farmer bailout aid.
House leaders are planning to vote Tuesday on the measure, despite GOP opposition.
A continuing resolution with a Dec. 11 end date would tee up a spending standoff during a lame-duck session of Congress — possibly in the middle of a presidential transition and as both chambers are roiled over McConnell’s pledge to vote on a replacement for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Friday. Republicans had originally pushed for a Dec. 18 end date for the stopgap, while Democrats wanted to extend government funding until Feb. 26 — a more advantageous end date if they take control of both chambers this fall.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday said that she has no intention of allowing the government to shut down when asked if she would use the negotiations over spending as leverage in the Supreme Court fight.
Even if the stopgap lasts until December, lawmakers could still punt the government funding deadline into early next year if there’s little appetite for bipartisan negotiations on a massive appropriations package in the weeks after the election. The House has already passed most of its spending bills, while the Senate hasn’t started its appropriations process yet.
But in a statement on Monday, Pelosi said Congress should come up with a bipartisan deal to fully fund the government by December.
“We continue to believe that the Congress should complete its work by passing full appropriations bills by December, which the House has already done,” she said. “We must continue to work to reach agreement on a coronavirus relief package that meets the health and economic needs of the American people.”
The stopgap spending measure includes a provision to ensure that seniors aren’t hit with a $50 per month Medicare Part B premium hike and a one-year surface transportation authorization extension. The bill also allows FEMA to access fiscal 2021 funding in order to deal with a booming Atlantic hurricane season and raging wildfires on the West Coast.
The bill would reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program through Sept. 30, 2021, increase flexibility for processing loans through the Small Business Administration and provide funding for presidential inauguration and transition activities, among other things.
Lawmakers appeared to be pulling together a deal on Friday, until major snags with trade relief for farmers blew up negotiations. Republicans have pushed to ensure that farmer bailout payments can keep flowing through the Commodity Credit Corporation, which otherwise would soon run into its $30 billion borrowing limit.
Democrats have opposed throwing money at a problem that they believe Trump created through his trade policies, and in exchange, they have wanted at least $2 billion to help families with school-aged children buy groceries during the pandemic.
A senior Democratic aide trashed the farmer bailout funding in a statement on Monday, stressing that the president is using billions of dollars for expressly political purposes — touting the aid on the campaign trail — with no accountability for taxpayers.
Republicans and Democrats have sparred for weeks over when the stopgap spending bill should expire, in addition to which policy and funding exceptions would be included, otherwise known as anomalies.
As of Friday, Democrats had dropped a request that would extend the Census Bureau’s Dec. 31 deadline to turn over apportionment data used to divvy up House seats to the president — potentially punting the final handling of census data to Democratic nominee Joe Biden if he’s elected this November. Democrats had also failed to secure $3.6 billion in election security grants.