The prospect of a government shutdown is looming as a number of conservative senators huddle on whether to derail a bipartisan rush to pass a yearlong spending bill as soon as Thursday, the Washington Examiner has learned.
Republican and Democratic negotiators reached a deal for an omnibus spending bill that would fund the government for most of next year but need an extra week to work out the details of the legislation. The House, facing a lapse in funding on Friday at midnight, passed a one-week extension on Wednesday to keep the government afloat until Dec. 23, but with hours left to act, the bill could get held up in the Senate if a single Republican senator objects to fast-tracking a vote on the House-passed bill.
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“I’ve been here 12 years, and I’ve seen this so many times,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) told the Washington Examiner in an interview previewing a possible shutdown battle. “I know exactly what they’re up to. And I think it’s time we call them out on why they’re doing it.”
Lee and three other GOP senators teased the idea of effectively blocking the one-week funding bill in a press conference Wednesday. The lawmakers, part of a small but vocal group of Senate Republicans opposed to a yearlong bill being crafted just weeks before a new session of Congress starts on Jan. 3, want to punt the issue to early next year, after Republicans take over the House.
The conservative House Freedom Caucus has urged Senate Republicans to vote against the spending measure, arguing the GOP, newly in control of the lower chamber, will have more leverage next year. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who is vying to become House speaker in January, came out forcefully against the omnibus in a press conference Wednesday.
Lee, echoing the concerns of House Republicans, sought to advance a short-term continuing resolution on Tuesday evening that would fund the government until early February, but the motion was blocked.
Senate leadership is moving quickly to pass the yearlong omnibus instead, something Lee says is intentionally being done at the last minute to strong-arm senators into voting “yes” for the bill with the Christmas recess fast approaching.
The time crunch is “designed to set us up for a shutdown battle, something that may very well result in a shutdown,” Lee told the Washington Examiner. “If they really are serious about not wanting to have a shutdown on the table, then they will agree to suspending the shutdown threat for several weeks, not just one.”
Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Rick Scott (R-FL) joined Lee in the Wednesday press conference to decry the “Schumer-Pelosi spending bill.” The senators argued that allowing for a short-term extension into next year would give lawmakers time to consider an omnibus in a “clear-headed fashion” without the time crunch.
“There’s really no equivalency between the approaches,” Johnson said. “Ours is very reasonable, doesn’t preclude them from negotiating an omnibus sometime in the next few weeks. Theirs is meant to coerce us, to force members to vote on something they’ve never even seen.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is in favor of a yearlong omnibus but has repeatedly warned that if the Senate does not pass a bill by Dec. 22, he will support a short-term CR that extends into the new year.
At the news conference, the conservative senators did not rule out objecting to a vote on the one-week CR when it comes before the Senate on Thursday. Asked why they would agree to leadership’s “unreasonable request” to advance the bill, a smirking Johnson replied, “We’re not saying we’re going to.”
Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday that he expects someone will object. Braun is part of the “Breakfast Club,” a group of conservative Senate Republicans who want GOP leadership to confront the Democrats more forcefully. The group convened a Senate GOP conference meeting on Wednesday to lobby against the yearlong omnibus.
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“Somebody will for sure,” Braun said. “I mean, there’s a group of seven or eight of us that are going to do everything we can to make sure that we extend a CR into the next Congress.”
Despite being coy about whether they will block the one-week funding bill, a number of senators concerned about the omnibus are having conversations on whether to band together to slow down the CR’s passage. No decision has been made as of Wednesday evening, but all options are “on the table,” an aide familiar with the talks told the Washington Examiner.
If one or more senators block the one-week CR, then the Senate won’t be able to expedite a vote on the bill and may have to wait until the weekend to consider it. This could create a temporary lapse in government funding after Friday at midnight.
Conservative Republicans are already messaging that if the conflict comes to a head and leads to a government shutdown, Senate leadership would have no one to blame but themselves.
“It’ll be their choice,” Scott said at Wednesday’s news conference.
Lee declined to say whether he will object to fast-tracking the one-week CR, saying he tends not to signal his plans in advance. “I’m reluctant to pin myself down to any one strategy,” he said.
Paul, another member of the Breakfast Club, told Politico on Wednesday that “we haven’t made a final decision yet.”
Braun is one member of the group who says he will not hold up the one-week CR, telling reporters on Wednesday that he’s shying away from “last-minute dramatics.”
“It’s a fait accompli, whatever we do, it’s going to happen. We always get left holding the bag if the government is shut down,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), previewing the blame Democrats will assign to Republicans in the event of a shutdown, urged senators to pass the CR without the “unwelcome brouhaha that has provoked shutdowns in the past.”
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Speaking from the Senate floor, he warned on Wednesday that “the experiences of the last decades show that those who risk shutdowns in order to make political points always lose in the end.”
The brewing conflict could blow wide open on Thursday, when the Senate is slated to consider the stopgap spending bill. Lee, asked how he sees things playing out, said “not well for those who want a one-week CR.”
