House takes up next funding package ahead of shutdown deadline
Washington — The House plans to vote Wednesday on the latest bipartisan funding package as the Senate works to approve another set of spending measures that passed the lower chamber last week.
Congress is rushing to beat a Jan. 30 deadline to pass the annual appropriations bills to avoid another government shutdown.
Top lawmakers on the Senate and House appropriations committees released a two-bill package Sunday that contains funding for the Departments of State, Treasury and other related agencies.
When the package comes up for a vote in the lower chamber later Wednesday, House GOP leaders, who have an increasingly narrow majority due to deaths and early retirements, could run into difficulty during a procedural vote if there are absences or defections.
The Senate, meanwhile, is moving through procedural votes on a three-bill package that includes funding for the Departments of Commerce, Justice and Interior, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency. The House approved the package last week in a vote that was overwhelmingly bipartisan.
If both pieces of legislation make it to President Trump's desk, Congress will have four more appropriations bills to pass to fully fund the government through the end of the fiscal year in September.
But the Senate has a weeklong recess next week and the House is scheduled to be out the week after — creating a quick turnaround on the final bills, including a controversial measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security.
Plans were dropped to include the Homeland Security Department appropriations in the package unveiled this week after an ICE officer fatally shot a Minnesota woman. Democrats have threatened to withhold their support for this funding if it does not include ICE reforms.
"It's a politically very sensitive topic," GOP Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said Tuesday. "That's why we decided not to push ahead with a Homeland bill this week."
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said it's "one of the major issues that the appropriators are confronting right now."
Cole said negotiations on the other remaining bills are "very close" to wrapping up and he expected passage in both chambers.
"Then we've just got to strategize how to get Homeland, if we can," he said. "But most of the government should be up and functional."
If a deal can't be reached on Homeland Security, Cole said lawmakers would likely pass another temporary measure, which would maintain funding for the agency at its current level.