Congress returns for closing act earlier than curtain rises on new Trump period

By David Morgan and Bo Erickson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Democratic-led U.S. Senate and Republican Home of Representatives return this week for a showdown over authorities spending, catastrophe aid and protection coverage earlier than President-elect Donald Trump ushers in a brand new period of single-party rule subsequent month.

The primary problem for lawmakers over the following three weeks is to avert a pre-Christmas partial authorities shutdown by placing a bipartisan deal to fund federal businesses past Dec. 20, when a present stopgap spending measure is because of expire.

The controversy will embody a virtually $100 billion emergency catastrophe aid request from President Joe Biden for areas of the U.S. Southeast hit by hurricanes Helene and Milton, and different communities struck by pure disasters.

Congress additionally faces a Jan. 1 deadline for elevating the federal authorities’s debt ceiling, although lawmakers and aides say that extraordinary measures employed by the Treasury Division are prone to postpone the anticipated “X” date for default properly into 2025.

Senate Democrats, who’re getting into their closing days within the majority, and a few Republicans hope to enact an omnibus package deal of annual spending payments that will fund the federal government by fiscal yr 2025, which ends on Sept. 30, quite than a shorter-term persevering with decision, or “CR.”

“I nonetheless maintain out this hope that we may keep away from a CR,” Senator Susan Collins, prime Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, stated earlier than lawmakers left city forward of the U.S. Thanksgiving vacation.

However Trump’s allies are pushing for a three-month stopgap that supporters say would enable their social gathering’s incoming political trifecta to dismantle present Democratic spending initiatives and coverage priorities early within the new administration.

“We have made omnibus spending payments painful to vote for (maintain eyes on the Senate) … now we should kill the follow,” Consultant Chip Roy, a number one hardline conservative, stated on social media final week.

The Home is not anticipated to start critical work on authorities funding till the final of the session’s three weeks, with Speaker Mike Johnson expressing assist for a seamless decision that will run into early subsequent yr.

That technique additionally poses dangers for Johnson’s slim 220-213 Republican majority, which didn’t go its personal partisan stop-gap measure in September and needed to depend on primarily Democratic votes to narrowly avert a shutdown weeks earlier than the Nov. 5 election.

FIRST 100 DAYS

This time, Republicans goal to show better unity forward of gaining full management over fiscal 2025 funding early subsequent yr.

However the stopgap method will even drain time and vitality away from Trump’s bold first-100-days agenda of tax cuts, vitality deregulation and border safety.

Home Republicans may have a equally slim majority subsequent yr and will see their margin of error shrink to a single seat for a number of months, with the departure of Matt Gaetz and two different Republicans who’re set to hitch the Trump administration.

The 100-day agenda of Trump’s first presidency ran aground in 2017 over an identical funding query, forcing him to withdraw his controversial plan to finance a wall alongside the U.S.-Mexico border to keep away from a authorities shutdown that April.

However Republicans consider they’ll enact Trump’s agenda this time.

“There isn’t any daylight between their agenda and what they envision and what we envision for the Home,” stated Johnson, who has been in shut contact with Trump.

Trump’s transition crew didn’t reply to a request for remark.

The CR technique may assist Johnson keep away from the drawn-out January battle over the speakership Republicans skilled two years in the past, as far-right members of the Home Freedom Caucus like Roy vehemently oppose an omnibus spending package deal.

Hardline Republicans have been angered by Johnson’s willingness to work with Democratic Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer on spending prior to now.

High lawmakers have but to say how they intend to deal with a Biden request for emergency catastrophe aid.

The pinnacle of the Small Enterprise Administration not too long ago testified to Congress that the company’s catastrophe mortgage program for owners, renters, and companies ran out of cash in October, leaving greater than 60,000 mortgage candidates ready for help.

“Individuals are determined for solutions, and assist, and hope, they usually need to Congress for motion,” stated Senator Patty Murray, Democratic chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, “On a regular basis we do not act, the prices develop.”

Aides stated a catastrophe aid package deal would doubtless be connected to a CR.

However the first goal for Congress this month is prone to be passage of the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act, or NDAA, annual laws that units coverage for the Protection Division, based on congressional aides. Ground votes may come as early as subsequent week, based on aides.