Democrats make ‘global offer’ on government funding, Ukraine, COVID-19 aid

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday said that Democrats had made a “global offer” as Congress tries to wrap up government funding negotiations by a Friday night deadline.

“Democrats have made a reasonable global offer to Republicans and it is my hope that we will reach an agreement very soon so that we can meet the March 11 government funding deadline,” Schumer wrote in a “Dear Colleague” letter. 

In addition to government funding, the massive bill is expected to include billions in new military and humanitarian assistance to address Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-N.Y.), in a letter to her caucus over the weekend, said that the administration had requested $10 billion to aid Ukraine and that “Congress intends to enact this emergency funding this week as part of our omnibus government funding legislation.”

The White House has also requested $22.5 billion for coronavirus relief. Republicans have balked at the number, arguing that there needs to be an accounting of how previous coronavirus money was spent.  

“We have been working on a bipartisan, bicameral basis through the weekend to finish work on an omnibus package that includes robust assistance to the people and government of Ukraine and additional funds to ensure our country is prepared if and when the next COVID variant strikes,” Schumer wrote in the letter.  

Congress has until the end of Friday to get a government funding bill to Biden’s desk for him to sign in order to prevent a shutdown. 

Complicating the schedule, the House is supposed to leave town for the week after Wednesday. 

In order to meet the Friday deadline, the Senate will also need a deal with all 100 members in order to speed up passage of the spending bill. 

A group of conservatives is demanding a vote on defunding Biden’s vaccine mandates in exchange for speeding up any government funding legislation. The group made similar demands on previous stopgap bills passed by Congress and were able to get amendment votes, which failed.

“We are writing to let you know that we will once again not consent to a time agreement that eases passage of a CR or Omnibus that funds these mandates,” the group, led by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), wrote. 

If negotiators aren’t quickly able to reach an agreement, they could need to use a continuing resolution (CR) to buy themselves more time.  

“We’d have to make great strides between now and say Monday, Tuesday at the latest, to do this,” Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said late last week about how to avoid a CR.