Scoop: White House, Dems plot 3-month funding plan
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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) speaks at a news conference in July at Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) looks on. Photo: Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
The White House is plotting with Democratic leaders in Congress to try to force Republicans to accept a short-term spending bill that would fund the government through mid-December, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: The Biden administration's embrace of a three-month stopgap measure is an attempt to establish the terms of the spending debate with House Republicans, who are pushing for a six-month bill.
- If Congress and the White House can't agree on how to fund the government by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, the federal government will shut down in early October, weeks before Election Day.
- The December timeline Democrats want would require Congress to return to the Capitol for a lame-duck session when lawmakers — and the next president — would know who was going to control what branches of government starting in January.
- The new Congress begins Jan. 3, and the new president is to be sworn in on Jan. 20.
Driving the news: White House officials spoke separately with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) late last week to agree on a strategy, according to people familiar with the matter.
- On the call from the White House's team were Jeff Zients, chief of staff; Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president; Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget and Management, and Shuwanza Goff, director of legislative affairs.
- Biden's team wants to be on the same page with congressional Democrats heading into the year-end funding battle to force House Republicans to accept a plan to fund the government largely at fiscal 2024 levels.
- Speaker Mike Johnson told his members last week to prepare to vote for his six-month plan early this week.
- Johnson wants a spending plan that would include a measure requiring voters to offer proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections.
Zoom in: This week, the White House will begin to highlight the risks of a six-month continuing resolution on military readiness, veterans care, disaster relief and other national security priorities, like competing with China.
- Democrats also want to avoid handing a potential President Harris a tight deadline to fund the government in the first few months of her term.
A six-month timeline would set up a massive spending showdown before March 31, which for Democrats is uncomfortably close to the April 30 deadline for the Fiscal Responsibility Act to take effect.
- After that date, automatic cuts would kick in across the board, affecting spending levels for education, veterans, the military and border security.
Zoom out: With Congress struggling to pass funding bills in a timely manner, year-end showdowns over a shutdown have become a feature of modern politics.
- Many conservative Republicans are willing to either shut down the government or bluff about doing so, more moderate lawmakers worry that voters will blame them for failing to keep the government open and operating.
- "How long do we take this?," Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) asked her colleagues on a GOP call last week. "Are we going to take this to a shutdown?"
What they're saying: "As we have said repeatedly, avoiding a government shutdown requires bipartisanship, not a bill drawn up by one party," Schumer and Senate Appropriations chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in a joint statement Friday.
- "This tactic didn't work last September and it will not work this year either," they said of Johnson adding conditions to a temporary spending resolution. "The House Republican funding proposal is an ominous case of déjà vu."
- In a letter to fellow Democratic senators released Sunday, Schumer said: "We will not let poison pills or Republican extremism put funding for critical programs at risk."
Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional reporting.
