US Congressional leaders ready stopgap bill to extend govt funding

Another extension has moved into focus as Congress appears on track to miss two staggered deadlines - January19 for passage of four of the 12 annual government-funding bills and February 2 for others

Congressional leaders are working on a renewed stopgap spending agreement to keep the federal government funded into March, potentially averting a shutdown starting January 20.

Another extension has moved into focus as Congress appears on track to miss two staggered deadlines — January19 for passage of four of the 12 annual government-funding bills and February 2 for the other eight.

A spokesperson for the Senate's Democratic majority leader, Chuck Schumer, said a text of the spending deal is expected to be posted online on Sunday. A second source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the earlier reports were accurate.

 

Funding expires on January 19 for some federal agencies, including the Department of Transportation, while others like the Defense Department face a February 2 deadline.The plan emerging Saturday among House and Senate leaders would buy more time for negotiations while maintaining the two-step structure: it would continue funding for the first batch of agencies at existing levels until March 1, and for the second group until March 8, two people familiar with the plans said. Punchbowl earlier reported.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Mike Johnson agreed on Sunday to cap effective spending for fiscal year 2024 at $1.66 trillion — at least $70 billion more than House Freedom Caucus members and other ultra-conservatives want.

While Schumer this week started procedural steps in the Senate toward a stopgap bill, Johnson hasn’t publicly committed to one.

Backing a so-called continuing resolution would mark a politically risky reversal by Johnson from his insistence in November, weeks after becoming speaker, that he didn’t want to pass any more short-term funding bills.

Johnson will provide rank-and-file Republicans with details in a conference call Sunday, one of the people said. In doing so, Johnson is acknowledging he likely will need Democratic votes to pass the temporary measures. The bill text is expected to be published on Sunday.

Hard-line House Republicans were already giving Johnson pushback on the deal with Schumer. After a week of uncertainty, the speaker said Friday he was sticking to it — and a handful of conservatives have raised the prospect of ousting him from his post.

Some of those conservative Republicans have also said they opposed a stopgap.

 

There’s no immediate sign that a move to oust Johnson could succeed, but it’s a clash reminiscent of one that played out in the House in October, just before hard-line Republicans ousted then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy for similar deal-making with Democrats.

The January 19 deadline, which would move to March 1, covers about 20 per cent of agency funding, including for the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development.