The House isn’t back until Wednesday, and government funding is set to run out Friday at midnight. Negotiators had hoped to finalize and release the bills last night. But talks have slowed.
Democrats say the holdup is House Republicans’ insistence that policy changes, known as riders, are added to the funding bills.
The speaker is under pressure from the House Freedom Caucus to obtain “significant policy changes” in the funding bills, some of which it laid out in a letter last week.
Johnson also faces discontent from many others in his conference who want him to make a decision, keep the government open and stop placating the far-right minority.
The four appropriations bills set to expire Friday — agriculture; military construction-VA; energy and water and transportation; housing and urban development — are the easier ones. On March 8, funding runs out for more controversial bills for which the far right is demanding even more explosive policy riders around abortion, LGBTQ rights and border security.
Johnson is prepared to offer yet another short-term government funding bill if they run out of time this week. But this would be the fourth time Congress would have to punt government spending for fiscal year 2024. This deep in the fiscal year, lawmakers should be focusing on next year’s funding.
While Johnson is focused on government funding this week, rank-and-file House members are taking steps to bypass the speaker’s refusal to act amid threats to his speakership from some anti-Ukraine members of his party, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Warren Davidson (R-Ohio).
Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Jared Golden (D-Maine) filed a bipartisan bill to fund Ukraine and Israel, and to provide some border security provisions through a discharge petition — a mechanism to bypass the majority.
Any discharge petition, if successful, would force a vote on the floor. But it would need 218 signatures — at least five Republicans — for it to move. The original discharge petition has 213 Democratic signatures. McGovern can start collecting signatures for the new one on March 1.
There are immense challenges for a successful discharge petition, but if frustration boils over, it might work.
Democrats say the holdup is House Republicans’ insistence that policy changes, known as riders, are added to the funding bills.
- “We will once again face the specter of a harmful and unnecessary government shutdown caused by an extreme wing within the Republican Party,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote in a letter to his colleagues last night.
The speaker is under pressure from the House Freedom Caucus to obtain “significant policy changes” in the funding bills, some of which it laid out in a letter last week.
Johnson also faces discontent from many others in his conference who want him to make a decision, keep the government open and stop placating the far-right minority.
The four appropriations bills set to expire Friday — agriculture; military construction-VA; energy and water and transportation; housing and urban development — are the easier ones. On March 8, funding runs out for more controversial bills for which the far right is demanding even more explosive policy riders around abortion, LGBTQ rights and border security.
Johnson is prepared to offer yet another short-term government funding bill if they run out of time this week. But this would be the fourth time Congress would have to punt government spending for fiscal year 2024. This deep in the fiscal year, lawmakers should be focusing on next year’s funding.
A bipartisan discharge petition
And then there’s Ukraine funding. A bipartisan group of lawmakers is trying to maneuver around Johnson to pass it.While Johnson is focused on government funding this week, rank-and-file House members are taking steps to bypass the speaker’s refusal to act amid threats to his speakership from some anti-Ukraine members of his party, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Warren Davidson (R-Ohio).
Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Jared Golden (D-Maine) filed a bipartisan bill to fund Ukraine and Israel, and to provide some border security provisions through a discharge petition — a mechanism to bypass the majority.
- Fitzpatrick said he filed the bill on Friday, after speaking with the House parliamentarian, as a way to expedite it.
- “We are forcing this bill to the floor to make sure everybody acts,” Fitzpatrick said on “Face the Nation.” “It’s time sensitive. It’s existential.”
Another Democratic discharge petition
House Democrats have also taken their own steps to act on Ukraine if Johnson doesn’t. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) introduced a new motion to discharge measure on Feb. 15 to force a vote on a Ukraine aid bill.- “We need to put all the options on the table and make sure that we know all the tools in the toolbox that we have,” McGovern told us Sunday.
Any discharge petition, if successful, would force a vote on the floor. But it would need 218 signatures — at least five Republicans — for it to move. The original discharge petition has 213 Democratic signatures. McGovern can start collecting signatures for the new one on March 1.
There are immense challenges for a successful discharge petition, but if frustration boils over, it might work.
