Lawmakers face time crunch to clinch funding deal

Top congressional lawmakers are working against the clock to clinch a bipartisan agreement on government spending before a Feb. 18 deadline, with pressure building on both sides to find common ground in the face of a rapidly closing window.

With roughly two weeks remaining until government funding is scheduled to lapse, some members are concerned that, absent an agreement on an omnibus spending package for fiscal 2022, lawmakers will miss another deadline this month to approve new spending levels.

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Committee, on Tuesday cast doubt on the chances Congress will come to an agreement this week on an omnibus bill for fiscal 2022 to be passed on or before the current February deadline if both sides of the aisle fail to agree on outstanding issues. 

“What happens in the next, say, 48 hours, 72 hours is crucial to us working anything [out] by then,” Shelby said.

For months, leaders have particularly struggled with reaching a bipartisan agreement on a top-line spending number, as well as longtime legislative riders like the Hyde amendment, while, at the same time, tackling other spending battles over top priority items like the nation’s debt limit.

Shelby said it’s “possible” lawmakers could pass an omnibus bill in time to avert having another continuing resolution (CR), which would temporarily fund the government at the previous fiscal year’s spending levels. But he downplayed the chances of that outcome as unlikely.

Republican and Democratic negotiators are hopeful leadership will strike a deal soon in ongoing spending negotiations, with members on both sides wary of the prospect of having to resort to another continuing resolution later this month and what that could mean for a path forward in ongoing talks.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) told The Hill on Tuesday that the likelihood of lawmakers passing an omnibus bill by Feb. 18 would be slim if leadership isn’t able to agree on a top-line number. 

“It is long past time for us to come to an agreement on the top lines and the path forward. I am hopeful it can still happen,” Coons said.

“The top line decision is a leadership decision, and we’ve got to come to an understanding about how we’re going to deal with the defense-domestic balance and how do we find room in the budget for all the different priorities that different members have,” he said.

Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.), a member of Republican leadership who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told The Hill on Tuesday he also thinks the chances of a full-year continuing resolution “get a little better every day.”

“I don’t think anybody who is interested in the military side, of the defense side of the spending or the nondefense side of the spending, either one, should be happy with the possibility of a CR, and I hope we don’t go there,” he said.

Democrats have similarly spoken out against the idea of a continuing resolution.

The White House has also pushed party leaders to strike a deal on the annual government funding legislation in order to enact the president’s budget priorities. It comes at a time in which President Biden’s trillion-dollar Build Back Better proposal appears to have hit a wall on Capitol Hill. 

While emerging from a meeting with congressional negotiators on Tuesday morning, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) reiterated to reporters that he and other top Democrats “very much want to get an omnibus done.”

Among some of the items White House officials have pushed for funding in the annual appropriations legislation are improving readiness for public health crises, bolstering defense readiness and investing in election infrastructure.

With the current time crunch looming over Congress, Shelby also sat down with Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), the ranking member on the House panel, in an effort to hash out a deal.

But it remained unclear as of early Tuesday evening how much closer negotiators are to reaching a compromise.

Pressed by reporters on progress made in finding parity between defense and non-defense spending, Granger said negotiators are “still working” out those issues but added “there are fewer issues than there were before.”

“We’re talking,” DeLauro said after the meeting when asked if it’s possible for lawmakers to avoid another continuing resolution.

Shelby said that group of lawmakers would meet again Wednesday.

If Congress fails to pass a spending deal for fiscal 2022 and instead passes another continuing resolution, it will mark the third such time lawmakers have had to do so since the 2022 fiscal year technically began in October.

Blunt said Tuesday that timing is “getting pretty tight” for lawmakers “actually being able to have a bill and read through it” by the current deadline.

“I would still hope that we have agreements on everything by the 18th, and all that’s left to do is finalized and then read the bill,” Blunt said.