Republican House Spending Plan Gets Cool Reception in Senate
December 12 2017 - 06:06PM
Dow Jones News
By Kristina Peterson
WASHINGTON -- Senators from both parties poured cold water
Tuesday on a House Republican plan that would fund the military
through September while keeping the rest of the government running
only into January.
Congress last week passed a two-week spending bill that will
keep the government funded through Dec. 22. But lawmakers have yet
to figure out what their next step will be to keep it running after
next Friday.
House Republicans are planning to pass legislation next week
that would fully fund the military through the rest of the fiscal
year, which ends Sept. 30, while extending current funding for the
rest of the government just into January.
Leaders negotiating a longer-term funding bill haven't agreed on
how much to spend on non-defense items. The negotiations also are
overshadowed by GOP leaders' push to quickly pass a tax overhaul
bill.
But both Senate Republicans and Democrats said Tuesday the House
strategy wouldn't work in their chamber. Spending bills need 60
votes to clear procedural hurdles in the Senate, where Republicans
hold 52 seats.
"I suspect there would be a lot of support for that [approach]
in the House and probably a good amount of support for that in the
Senate, but it takes 60 [votes] over here, so in the end we have to
deal with the Democrats," Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, a member
of Senate GOP leadership, told reporters Tuesday. "They're going to
have their priorities and issues they want addressed in the
spending bill."
Democrats' biggest demand now is that Congress pass legislation
lifting both military and non-military spending above levels
established in 2011. Those curbs, known as the sequester, are set
to kick in early next year, unless Congress passes a new law
raising spending. Republicans have been eager to lift defense
spending, while Democrats have insisted any increase in military
funds should be matched on non-defense spending.
Without lifting those spending curbs, "everything, from our
national defense to the fight against opioids to military
preparedness to infrastructure will be underfunded," Senate
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) told reporters
Tuesday.
A group of 44 Senate Democrats sent a letter Tuesday to House
Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis. ) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell (R., Ky.) urging them to reject a bill that would only
provide long-term funding for defense.
The approach has the support of many House conservatives, who
want to boost defense funding but cut spending elsewhere. They also
want to reduce the leverage of Democrats, who know that keeping
military and non-military spending together helps create must-pass
legislation.
"We don't want a big increase in non-defense spending," said
Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), a former chairman of the House Freedom
Caucus, a group of roughly three dozen of the most conservative
House Republicans.
Senate Democrats urged Mr. Ryan to take a different approach --
or to at least make his move early enough for the Senate to reject
it without setting off alarms over a possible government
shutdown.
If the House were to pass a spending bill that couldn't clear
the Senate and immediately leave town, as some have discussed, that
could lead to a government shutdown.
"If Ryan insists on going on with this charade -- do it now, not
at the 11th hour," Mr. Schumer said. "If they send it to us, it
will fail quickly in the Senate. Then we could get back to
negotiating a real bipartisan agreement."
Congressional leaders have been negotiating a budget deal that
would raise the spending caps by $180 billion to $200 billion over
two years. That discussion dominated their meeting with President
Donald Trump at the White House last week, but no agreement has yet
been reached.
Under current law, regular military spending is capped at $549
billion for fiscal year 2018, while nonmilitary spending is capped
at $516 billion.
Write to Kristina Peterson at kristina.peterson@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 12, 2017 17:51 ET (22:51 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.