House Aims to Pass Stopgap Government-Funding Bill Next Week

(Bloomberg) -- The House is aiming to vote next week on a stopgap spending bill to keep the government open when the fiscal year ends on Oct. 1, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said.

The bill has not yet been formally scheduled because a draft hasn’t been finished. Republicans and Democrats have yet to agree on how long the stopgap will last until and on several minor tweaks to current spending levels.

A House vote next week would give the Senate enough time to process and pass the legislation by the end of the month, Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said in a statement.

Senate Republicans and the administration favor a temporary funding bill lasting past the election into December, given that Congress has few scheduled days in session in November. Some Democrats are seeking a stopgap into next year, when they hope to gain control of the Senate and White House and to have more power over final appropriations bills for the year.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have agreed to keep talks on the continuing resolution, or CR, separate from talks on virus stimulus.

“The details of the CR have to be worked out and I hope we can finish that this week,” Mnuchin told reporters Monday.

Talks on stimulus between the two have been stalled since Aug. 7, when Republicans balked at Democratic demands for $915 billion in aid to state and local governments. The White House has sought about a $1 trillion stimulus and Democrats are seeking $2.2 trillion.

“We all know that we need to come to agreement,” said Pelosi,during an appearance Monday on MNBC, “Coming to agreement is not, though, to say, ‘what’s the least we can do.’”

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