McConnell lays out GOP demands for government-funding deal
By Jordain Carney - 08/04/21 12:17 PM EDT
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) warned on Wednesday that Republicans won’t let full-year funding bills come up without a larger deal on government spending.
“When it comes to floor consideration, we cannot and will not start planting individual trees before we have bipartisan consensus on the shape of the forest,” McConnell said from the Senate floor.
Congress faces an end-of-September deadline to fund the government and avoid a shutdown. They’re widely expected to use a continuing resolution, which continues government funding at its current level, to get them past Oct. 1
Congress frequently passes a short-term continuing resolution to buy extra time to work out a larger deal on the 12 government funding bills that it wraps together in a massive year-end package.
But to pass the funding bills, Democrats will need 60 votes in the Senate — including at least 10 GOP votes. That gives Republicans the ability to block any bill from coming up for debate.
McConnell’s warning comes as the Senate Appropriations Committee cleared its first package of fiscal 2022 funding bills, underscoring that they don’t, currently, face a smooth path to the Senate floor.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/566320-mcconnell-lays-out-gop-demands-for-government-funding-deal
