{"id":5888,"date":"2025-02-07T21:33:40","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T21:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/leaders-squabble-appropriators-stoic-as-shutdown-deadline-approaches\/"},"modified":"2025-02-07T21:33:40","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T21:33:40","slug":"leaders-squabble-appropriators-stoic-as-shutdown-deadline-approaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/leaders-squabble-appropriators-stoic-as-shutdown-deadline-approaches\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaders squabble, appropriators stoic as shutdown deadline approaches"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Five weeks away from a government funding deadline, tensions are spiking among lawmakers and shutdown fears are rising.<\/p>\n

Top-level relations soured Friday, with Speaker Mike Johnson accusing Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of \u201ctrying to set up some sort of a government shutdown\u201d and saying Democrats were \u201cunresponsive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeffries then shot back, telling reporters Johnson\u2019s comments were \u201cprojection\u201d as Democrats remain at the negotiating table. He had backing from the top House GOP appropriator, who said he had spoken with his Democratic counterparts<\/a> Thursday.<\/p>\n

Republicans have been hounding Johnson about a spending plan as the speaker tries to hammer out their conference\u2019s differences on their separate, party-line domestic policy bill. Johnson told reporters later Friday he\u2019d been \u201claser focused on reconciliation for the last 24 hours,\u201d referring to the budget procedure Republicans intend to use to pass their agenda.<\/p>\n

Despite the bluster, top appropriators from both chambers and both parties \u2014 known as the \u201cfour corners\u201d \u2014 are trying to hash out an agreement on topline spending levels. House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the panel, continues to present a relatively upbeat \u2014 if urgent \u2014 mood about the talks even as the shutdown deadline approaches<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But there are obvious snags. Democrats say they are awaiting a unified offer from House and Senate Republicans, whose numbers are still not aligned. Republicans, meanwhile, are openly discussing a full-year continuing resolution, which would continue fiscal 2024\u2019s spending levels into fiscal 2025 with only a few potential modifications.<\/p>\n

Democrats, still feeling burned by the last-minute blowup of a funding deal they cut with Republicans in December, aren\u2019t in any mood to help out with that. DeLauro, for instance, said a yearlong stopgap bill \u201cshould be acceptable to no one.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeLauro said it was still possible to come to a deal but added that what happened in December \u2014 with billionaire Donald Trump ally Elon Musk publicly seeking to tank the agreement \u2014 \u201ccan\u2019t happen again. We need assurances that once the agreement is made, we can move forward and get these bills done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter twice breaking deals last session, I don’t think there’s a Democrat who says, let them hold up a football again so we can try to kick it,\u201d added Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.). \u201cAnd it’s going to have to be something consequential and verifiable before I think any of us would be there to support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cole said he continues to prefer passing new, written-from-scratch spending bills for fiscal 2025 over a full-year stopgap. But as appetite grows within his conference to keep spending down, doing so could be a tall order.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not an unreasonable argument. We’re halfway through. We haven’t gotten it done. Why don’t we wait for the president to lay out his budget and proceed from there?\u201d Cole told reporters Friday morning, discussing the rising calls for a CR. \u201cEvery day that goes by, the pressure to just throw in the cards and quit mounts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, some Democrats are discussing using their limited leverage over government funding and a coming debt ceiling deadline to extract concessions from Republicans. Those could include protections for \u201cDreamers,\u201d farmworkers and immigrant families as they seek to respond to GOP hard-line moves on immigration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are a crossroads in this entire process that would allow us to perhaps insert those three pieces into the debate,\u201d said Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), chair of the Hispanic Caucus.<\/p>\n

But with Republicans in control of the House and Senate and the White House, Democrats could face a hard choice next month between shutting down the government \u2014 something they typically oppose under nearly any circumstance \u2014 and supporting a GOP-drafted bill to keep the lights on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ll see,\u201d Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Friday. \u201cEverybody knows that Democrats don’t want to shut down the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Five weeks away from a government funding deadline, tensions are spiking among lawmakers and shutdown fears are rising. Top-level relations soured Friday, with Speaker Mike Johnson accusing Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of \u201ctrying to set up some sort of a government shutdown\u201d and saying Democrats were \u201cunresponsive.\u201d Jeffries then shot back, telling reporters Johnson\u2019s comments […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}