House Appropriations Committee chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen introduced a bill on Wednesday to fund government operations at current levels for one more week, giving leading Republicans and Democrats time to finish negotiations on a spending plan for the rest of the fiscal year ending on September 30.
The legislation was likely to be voted on by the House of Representatives and Senate today, meaning that if it passes, it would have to be rushed to President Donald Trump to sign into law promptly.
Without this extension or a longer-term funding bill, federal agencies will run out of money by midnight today, likely triggering abrupt lay-offs of hundreds of thousands of federal government workers.
The last government shutdown, in 2013, lasted for 17 days, and many lawmakers are nervous about the prospect of another.
“I am optimistic that a final funding package will be completed soon,” Frelinghuysen, a Republican, said in a statement.
In the midst of the delicate negotiations, Trump took to Twitter to blast Democrats.
“As families prepare for summer vacations in our National Parks – Democrats threaten to close them and shut down the government. Terrible!” Trump tweeted, along with a series of other tweets.
Representative Nita Lowey, the senior Democrat on the appropriations panel warned Republicans that she hoped they resist “poison pill” add-ons to the longer-term spending bill being negotiated.
And the No. 2 House Democrat, Steny Hoyer, warned he would oppose Frelinghuysen’s stopgap spending bill and encourage his fellow Democrats to do likewise if the House Republican leadership – as is being speculated – rushes a bill to the House floor this week to repeal and replace the Obamacare healthcare law.
Negotiators were racing against the clock to resolve remaining disputes in the massive spending bill amid talks that have already handed Democrats at least two major victories despite Republican control of Congress.
Trump, a Republican, gave in to Democratic demands that the spending bill not include money to start building the wall he wants to erect on the US-Mexico border.
His administration also agreed to continue funding for a major component of Obamacare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act, despite vows to end the programme.
It remained unclear whether Republicans would prevail in their effort to significantly increase defence spending without similar increases for other domestic programmes.
Trump has proposed a $30bn spending boost for the Pentagon for the rest of this fiscal year.
Such funding disputes could resurface later in spending bills for the next fiscal year starting in October.
Other disagreements must also still be ironed out in the current plan, including funding to make a healthcare programme for coal miners permanent and to plug a gap in Puerto Rico’s Medicaid programme, the government health insurance programme for the poor.
Additional “riders” on other issues could also be tucked into the legislation, which must pass both the House and Senate.
Although Republicans control both chambers of Congress, they hold just 52 seats in the Senate and will need support from some Democrats to win the 60 votes needed there to pass the bill.
