Republicans Consider Another Short-Term Spending Resolution, Democrats Vow to Oppose

Last week, on the cusp of the deadline to pass either a budget or a continuing resolution to keep the federal government operational, Congress passed a two-week continuing resolution, buying itself more time to debate and finalize the components of a final, longer-term deal.

Despite previous public suggestions that a continuing resolution was not House Republicans’ preference, an eleventh-hour deal became necessary as legislators failed to come to agreement on disparate budget priorities from the President, House, and Senate.

The continuing resolution continues to fund the government at current levels through December 22nd, during which Congressional Republicans hope to nail down a final budget package.

According to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI), “We’re going to put together a bill that reflects our priorities and send that over to the Senate after tax reform,” the Wisconsin Republican said.

But some Democrats have indicated they are unwilling to budge on issues they deem problematic within the discussed budget options, including a fix to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which was established under President Obama and rescinded by President Trump. Congressional Democrats have insisted the inclusion of a DACA fix is essential in order to secure bipartisan support for any budget measure.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) indicated this week that Democrats are unlikely to support another stopgap measure, also suggesting the minority party is willing to stick to its guns on DACA and other issues of concern to Democrats.

“There’s no more time to get these things done,” Hoyer said. Republicans “are not going to bludgeon us into ignoring issues just because they ignore issues,” the Maryland Democrat said. “And they think they have the votes. We’ll see.”

With fewer than ten days remaining before the threat of government shutdown again becomes imminent, consensus is far from certain, with Roll Call noting that “a clean CR into January is likely among backup plans Republicans are considering,” potentially setting the stage for a dynamic budget showdown just days before Christmas.