Republican electoral wins in both the presidential race and the Senate are changing the game on government funding, as Congress braces for a battle over federal spending when lawmakers return next week.
The increasing likelihood of a trifecta of Republican control in Washington is putting GOP leaders squarely in the driver’s seat in deciding whether to complete their annual funding work this year or punt the current Dec. 20 shutdown deadline into next year, when President-elect Trump is in office.
While a short-term stopgap would allow a potentially GOP-controlled Congress and a Republican president more say over how the government will be funded for much of 2025, it could also leave the party with a hefty to-do list in the first months of Trump presidency, between tying up spending, reckoning with the nation’s debt ceiling, and other first 100-day priorities leaders are mulling.
Republicans will most likely control 53 seats in the Senate, and Trump won the White House decisively. Control of the House has yet to be called, but Republicans are growing optimistic of maintaining their narrow majority in the lower chamber.
Congress currently has until Dec. 20 to pass legislation to prevent a government shutdown before the holidays. But that means a serious time crunch for both sides to hash out a deal to keep the lights on — and most lawmakers aren’t saying which plan they would prefer.
A House GOP leadership aide said Thursday that it’s “likely” lawmakers will try for another stopgap during the lame-duck period, along with a disaster aid package that will include dollars for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration.
Outgoing Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said Wednesday that he thinks “deciding how to spend the discretionary money that we have” is “important.”
“And I would hope we would put a greater priority than the current Senate has on doing the basic work of government, which is deciding how much to spend and getting it done as close to regular order as possible,” he said.
However, McConnell additionally said lawmakers will soon “figure out how to finish up the year,” adding, “that always involves a conversation between [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer and myself as to how we wrap it up — but those conversations haven’t started yet.”
One factor in those conversations may be whom Republicans choose to replace McConnell as GOP leader after his historic stint in the post. Senate and House Republicans both intend to hold leadership races next week.
Another factor could be the ambitious agenda Republicans are already mapping out for Trump’s first 100 days and whether they, and the president-elect, want to add to it. They need to address the nation’s debt limit when they convene in January and have said they will prioritize extending the tax cuts he enacted during his first term, which are currently set to expire at the end of 2025, among other plans.
Trump has not expressed a preference on the timing of a government funding bill.
The question of how long to extend government funding for emerged as a central sticking point in negotiations ahead of the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline. An initial plan called for a keeping the government funded at the previous fiscal year’s levels through early next year, but House Republicans weren’t able to pass the legislation, and eventually leaders settled on the Dec. 20 deadline.
Conservatives saw the strategy then as key to avoiding being jammed with an omnibus funding package packed with items and funding levels more favorable to Democrats. They also argued kicking the deadline into next year would allow Trump, if elected, a better chance to have more input over how the government is funded for most of the coming year.
But the six-month strategy drew opposition from multiple corners of the conference. Defense hawks at the time argued freezing funding at fiscal 2024 levels for half a year would harm the military. Fiscal hawks, some of whom are wholly opposed to the very idea of a stopgap, were also critical of the stopgap for continuing funding at levels they already felt were excessive.
And some appropriators called for finishing the fiscal 2025 funding work this year.
House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said in September he thinks lawmakers should instead focus on getting their funding work finished “and try and do it as expeditiously as possible.”
“I personally think it’s not a good thing to give a new president — and we’re going to have a new president — an immediate fiscal crisis,” Cole said. “But again, that’s probably going to be up to the winner of the election, to be honest. If they want it, then Congress is always happy to pass the ball.”
Those same intraparty rifts could pose similar hurdles in the months ahead as both sides look for a solution to avert a shutdown next month.
Republicans in both chambers have been drawing red lines around the prospect of a Christmastime omnibus funding package, which combines all 12 government funding bills, amid fears from conservatives that’s where Congress was headed after previously setting the Dec. 20 funding deadline.
“We have broken the Christmas omni, and I have no intention of going back to that terrible tradition,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in September, while also ruling out the chances of any minibus packages, adding: “We’re not going to do any buses.”
Still, though Democrats’ leverage over the funding process significantly diminished with the election results, their votes will likely be required to pass government funding. Democrats currently control the Senate, and House Republicans have been unable to pass their own funding bills without Democratic votes.
That could hold true even in January, and Republicans’ Senate majority is not filibuster-proof.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday that the Biden administration will focus its remaining days partly on tying up loose ends on the spending side, including disaster relief.
“I can tell you things that we’re going to focus on in the upcoming 74 days. We’re going to make sure that we keep the government open,” Jean-Pierre said. “We’re going to deliver assistance for communities devastated by hurricanes Helen and Milton and other recent disasters.”
However, she stopped short of providing further details as to how the administration would prevent a shutdown next month as questions remain over how government funding and disaster relief will be tackled before Congress ushers in a new session come January.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said Thursday that Congress should pass a bill this year that covers most of 2025.
“It does not matter who is in the White House or who controls the House and the Senate. Close margins in the House next year—and the lack of a supermajority for Republicans in the Senate—mean Democrats and Republicans will still need to work together if we want to pass funding bills,” she said. “Whether we do it now or wait until next year, no single chamber or political party can act alone to fund the programs and services hardworking Americans depend on. Leaving all our work for January is a mistake.”
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