Congress Inches Towards a Government Funding DealSean Moran 12 Dec 2022
Congressional leaders are steadily moving towards a potential government funding deal as the government soon faces the prospect of a government shutdown.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Pat Leahy (D-VT) said on Sunday night that bipartisan negotiations would continue on an omnibus spending bill.
He explained, “Chairman Leahy feels that sufficient progress in negotiations took place over the weekend to delay the introduction of the omnibus appropriations bill for the time being. Bipartisan and bicameral negotiations continue.”
The government will shut down on Friday if Congress fails to pass either an omnibus spending bill or a continuing resolution (CR), which would keep spending at the same level.
An omnibus spending bill would total roughly $1,7 trillion and be thousands of pages long, so if even congressional leaders were to shortly strike a deal on spending levels, Congress would likely pass a one-week CR to give Congress time to draft an omnibus bill.
Republican leaders have refused to go along in “parity” between defense and non-defense spending programs; Republicans contend that Democrats have spent enough on climate change and other leftist victories in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Democrats want to pass a year-long CR while Republicans such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) want to pass a short-term CR into early 2023, giving House Republicans negotiating power when they formally take the House in early January.
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/12/12/congress-inches-towards-spending-deal/
