CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Dec. 2, 2011 – 9:52 p.m.
Lawmakers Look to Avoid Spending Showdown
By Frances Symes, CQ Staff
Appropriators in both parties say plans for a nine-bill package are on track, suggesting that a last-minute bid by conservative Republicans to reduce the overall spending ceiling has not gained traction.
Final House-Senate versions of many of the nine bills were said to be close to completion last week, and appropriators expressed hope that the package will see floor action before the current continuing resolution (PL 112-55) expires Dec. 16.
House Appropriations Chairman
The White House warned last week that a year-end appropriations package could be derailed, and a partial government shutdown is possible, if Republicans try to reduce the spending ceiling agreed to as part of last summer’s debt limit law (PL 112-25), or if the GOP tries to load the spending bills with conservative policy provisions.
“If congressional Republicans want to avoid a veto and are serious about avoiding a costly government shutdown and preventing the uncertainty that a shutdown would bring to our markets and our economy, they will stop attempting to relitigate the August agreement and abandon ideological stunts,” White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said in a Dec. 1 blog posting.
House Majority Leader
“The amount of spending reductions is not enough for many of us on our side of the aisle and perhaps may not be enough or too much on [the Democratic] side of the aisle, but we are operating under the deal that was agreed upon,” he said.
The White House is particularly worried about riders intended to eliminate or reduce money for administration priorities, including implementation of the 2010 health care (PL 111-148, PL 111-152) and financial regulatory (PL 111-203) laws, environmental regulation and the Race to the Top education initiative.
However,
Labor-HHS-Education
Appropriators say that, as is often the case, the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill (
“Funding of Obamacare” is one of the biggest issues in the negotiations, said
Lawmakers Look to Avoid Spending Showdown
His Democratic counterpart,
DeLauro said members of the GOP majority on the subcommittee have been unable to agree among themselves on the spending bill.
Several appropriators said at the end of last week that it may be possible to move forward with a package that includes negotiated agreements on the eight other bills and a continuing resolution to fund the programs covered under the Labor-HHS-Education bill. But others noted that Speaker
During a closed-door meeting last week, House Republicans expressed concern that the GOP majority relied heavily on Democratic votes to pass last month’s three-bill spending package (PL 112-55). Though the Republican leadership supported that measure, there were 101 GOP “no” votes.
“Negotiations will certainly be more difficult if Democrats believe that there are few Republicans willing to vote for the package,” appropriator
Republican leaders encouraged their caucus to accept that appropriations bills reflect bipartisan negotiations, and thus are likely to include provisions they oppose.
“The House Republicans are in the majority, we have an affirmative obligation to govern and when we bring up an appropriations bill, it’s a Republican bill,” Dent added. “So certainly I think there is a great deal of encouragement from everybody, members of the Appropriations Committee as well as leadership, to vote for the bill.”