House lawmakers are likely to discuss legislations in the upcoming week in order to keep the government running through March 23. The speculations came out from two sources that were close to the situation. However, the plan has not been finalized yet.
The idea behind this legislation is to get a ‘six week funding patch’ that will buy house lawmakers to reach a deal on immigration. It is believed that they have gotten enough time to make it happen. As a result, this would help them unravel the budget limits deal required to write a compilation of spending bill for the rest of the fiscal year.
Multiple sources revealed that Congress will send in their votes as early as Tuesday on the spending measures. This is because the House Democratic has planned a retreat for next Wednesday.
One of the GOP lawmakers said in a statement, “What I’ve heard is later March, sometime around the 23rd, so enough time to hopefully come to a deal to actually get an omnibus. I think they want to give themselves some breathing room, but no final decisions have been made.”
In other reports, the leadership is confused whether to attach any sweeteners to the next CR that will help them lure more support or not. According to Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), one option that has been under consideration is including money for community health centers.
Tom Cole chairs the Appropriations subcommittee on labor and health and human services. He said in a statement, “There’s certainly some discussion about that. A lot of us would like to do community health centers, Medicare extenders, things like the special diabetes program for Native American nations that is critical. I think it would make it much more attractive to Democrats.”
This led to the Republicans thinking that they have more leverage now than before. The Senate Democrats are currently less willing to use shutdown tactics for the second time around.
“I don’t think we’ll see a threat [of a] government shutdown again. … One of my favorite old Kentucky country sayings is ‘there’s no education in the second kick of a mule,’ and so I think there will be a new level of seriousness here trying to resolve these issues,” McConnell told reporters at the Republican retreat.
Other Republicans insisted that any debt ceiling legislation that is paired with spending reforms could face disagreement from the Democrats.
Meadows said in a statement on Thursday, “I’ve had conversations as recently as yesterday with Director Mulvaney and as recent as last week with Secretary Mnuchin on the debt ceiling, on how we can effectively make some real reforms in that area.”