Congress is running out of time to pass a December funding deal

Facing a government shutdown deadline in just over a month, Congress is quickly running out of time to do anything but punt funding levels into next year — unless bipartisan talks begin in earnest.

Congressional leaders have yet to announce the start of negotiations over a more comprehensive funding deal, raising the odds that lawmakers will resort to a stopgap in late December that kicks the next funding cliff into President-elect Donald Trump’s first months in office. Even if Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer started talking now, it could already be too late to pass final funding measures by the Dec. 20 deadline.

That’s because it usually takes Congress about a month to clear bills with updated spending levels once leaders have reached a deal on overall totals for military and non-defense spending. Johnson indicated Congress was running out of time in an interview Sunday.

“We’re running out of clock. December 20 is the deadline,” Johnson said in an interview with Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday.” “We’re still hopeful we might be able to get that done. But if not, we will have a temporary measure. I think it would go into the first part of next year and allow us the necessary time to get this done.”

Johnson and other Republican lawmakers have said they’ve been waiting to hear from Trump before they decide to close out funding discussions or punt them into next year. But the president-elect has not weighed in, at least not publicly.

While Democrats are eager to cut a deal that updates federal agencies’ funding through next September, congressional Republicans are divided on the decision.

“There are different points of view, as you would expect, about whether or not we ought to try and finish everything up this year or push it into next year,” Sen. John Thune (R-S.D), his chamber’s next majority leader, said Monday night.

Many Republican appropriators and other GOP lawmakers want to wrap up spending negotiations before year’s end, to update funding for the Pentagon and other federal agencies, as well as avoid an extra distraction next year as they work to enact policy that defines their first 100 days in control of Congress and the White House.

On the other side of the argument, Johnson said over the weekend that he thinks it would be advantageous for Republicans to kick the deadline into Trump’s second term. That’s the preference of many House conservatives and could save the speaker from potential backlash as he prepares for a January vote to keep his gavel.

Anthony Adragna contributed to this report.