Ryan Said to Consult Senate for Dec. 30 Spending Stop-Gap Plan

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan will check with Senate Republicans to see if they have the votes to fund the government until Dec. 30, instead of Dec. 22 as first proposed, according to a senior Republican aide.

The measure would need support from at least eight Senate Democrats to pass.

The longer “continuing resolution,” which would delay a decision about government spending past the current shutdown deadline of Friday, came in response to pressure from Republican Representative Mark Meadows, of North Carolina, and his Freedom Caucus. While some of the group’s roughly three dozen members threatened to vote against a procedural vote for the Republicans’ high-priority tax overhaul, Ryan’s pledge to check with the Senate won back some votes.

Representative Patrick McHenry, another North Carolina Republican who is the House majority’s deputy vote-counter, said that changing the date for the stop-gap measure “depends on what the Senate can do.” There could be other conservative demands to go along with a longer continuing resolution, McHenry said, especially with some members more concerned about giving the military a reliable budget than temporary funding levels.

“A lot of people are having a lot of conversations,” McHenry said, adding that questions would be addressed at the House Republicans’ conference meeting Tuesday morning.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, of Texas, said Monday that he believed there was enough support among Senate Republicans for a measure extending government funding until Dec. 22. That would be enough time to agree on spending caps for defense and non-defense spending that could set a framework for a broader deal on individual agency budgets, he said.

Cornyn wasn’t asked whether support would also be there for a stop-gap measure that lasted until Dec. 30.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Edgerton in Washington at aedgerton@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net, Michael B. Marois, Brendan Scott

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