Democrats, GOP Near Stopgap Deal to Avoid Government Shutdown
Democrats, GOP Agree on Stopgap to Avoid Government Shutdown
(Bloomberg) -- Republicans and Democrats in Congress were closing in on agreement for a stopgap spending measure to keep the U.S. government open after the new fiscal year begins on Oct. 1, but a last-minute dispute over farm aid delayed a final bill from being released.
The bill, which would extend current levels of spending for agencies through Dec. 11, likely won’t be finished until Monday.
The stopgap, known as a continuing resolution, has been the subject of negotiations among Democratic and Republican congressional leaders along with the White House. Both sides were still working through some of the details on money for agricultural assistance that had been sought by farm state lawmakers.
House leaders have been planning for a vote next week in the chamber, and then it will be up to the Senate to act.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin agreed earlier this month to keep talks on a coronavirus relief stimulus package separate from the funding bill. Stimulus talks have stalled since early August with both sides about $1 trillion apart in their offers.
The funding bill was subject to a last minute fight Friday over farm aid that both sides were trying to resolve. Senate Republicans from farm states pushed for $30 billion to replenish funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Commodity Credit Corp., a government-owned entity that aims to stabilize farm income.
Trump announced $13 billion in new aid to farmers at a rally in Wisconsin on Thursday, and the corporation had already projected an increase in demand for agriculture risk coverage, price-loss coverage, and marketing-assistance loans.
Democrats had preferred to keep the farm aid debate for a separate stimulus bill and at one point agreed to the change in exchange for $2 billion in food assistance for children. But the final language was still being worked on.
Some Democrats had sought to extend funding into next spring, betting that the Nov. 3 election will put them in charge in the Senate and White House. Republicans resisted that push with the argument that it would give Congress a deadline to finish work on full funding bills.
If the stopgap is finalized, lawmakers will try to complete work on the 12 annual appropriations bills for fiscal 2021 in the post-election lame-duck session in November and December. So far the Senate hasn’t drafted any of the bills, and there’s likely a battle ahead over paying for President Donald Trump’s wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and replacing military funds he raided to pay for the wall last year.
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