By Jacob Bogage · The Washington Post (c) 2024
Congressional leaders appeared to cinch a bipartisan deal Tuesday to stave off a fast-approaching government shutdown deadline, but House Republican infighting could still endanger any agreement and push federal agencies to the brink of shuttering this weekend.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) told reporters Tuesday that his office would unveil a stopgap funding bill, called a continuing resolution, or CR, that extends federal funding until March 14. Without new legislation, government agencies will shut down at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
The legislation will include a year-long extension of the major agricultural policy and anti-poverty law known as the farm bill, plus an additional $10 billion in aid for farmers and ranchers and a host of smaller policy tweaks that made for tense negotiations over the past few days.
Democrats hoped to include a provision that would have the federal government cover the full cost of recovery and rebuilding operations for Baltimore’s collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge, though it was not immediately clear by midday Tuesday whether that language would make it into the final bill.
Those measures threatened to turn what was supposed to be a routine federal funding extension into a dreaded end-of-year “Christmas tree,” decorated with lawmakers’ pet projects, and imperil Johnson’s speakership. He must win the votes of 218 House Republicans in the new Congress to continue in the post next year.
But now the ballooning nature of the CR has Republicans of all ideological stripes upset with Johnson – and the GOP leader will probably have to rely on support from Democrats to push the legislation across the finish line.
“I’m not worried about the speaker vote. We’re governing. Everyone knows we have difficult circumstances. We’re doing the very best we can under those circumstances,” Johnson said Tuesday.
While he spoke, across the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) said negotiators were still hammering out a final funding agreement. Democrats have been bullish on the process, though. Until January, they control the Senate, and the GOP’s divisions in the lower chamber give Democratic additional leverage.
Johnson’s brittle House GOP majority, set to shrink even further in 2025, has split on spending bills, forcing the speaker to use procedural steps on the floor to circumvent right-wingers’ roadblocks.
Maryland’s congressional delegation also wields outsize power on Congress’s spending committees, and Senate leaders are eager to send Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) – beloved by lawmakers for his affability and famous cocktail recipe – into retirement with funding secured. State officials estimated the cost to rebuild the bridge at close to $2 billion.
“We’re optimistic, but we also know there are times when this type of negotiation gets tied to other issues,” Cardin told The Washington Post. “We know that we’re not in yet. There’s still a debate going on. And we hope, and we’re optimistic.”
The funding bill is expected to include a provision that transfers control of the land around RFK Stadium from the federal government to the city of D.C., making it possible for the Washington Commanders and the city to negotiate for a potential new stadium. Maryland lawmakers have sought concessions from both the NFL franchise and other appropriators to offset the potential loss to their state.
That indecision surrounding the legislation left lawmakers grumbling as they walked off the House floor Monday night. Asked when lawmakers would get to see text of the CR, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) responded, “Soon, we hope.”
Asked the same question, Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma), normally one of the most gregarious members of the House, paused at the threshold of his office, stared, then closed the door.
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Mariana Alfaro contributed to this report.