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The Republican Congress is moving toward another self-imposed deadline, even though the House and Senate have been unable to reach an agreement to avoid it. Imminent health care premium spikes for millions of Americans Scheduled to start from January 1st.
There will be another government funding drop at the end of next month after an agreement was reached in November End the longest government shutdown Will fade away in history. Although Congress is unlikely to face such a big fight, the path ahead is still difficult for Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
That’s because Congress still needs to pass another spending bill to keep agencies open and basic services going, a relatively simple prospect it has repeatedly proven unable to manage. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have withheld their votes for such proposals in the past year, either in hopes of extracting political concessions or because of reservations about changing funding levels for various agencies and programs.
The result: Pay checks and essential parts of the welfare safety net for thousands of federal workers become political footballs with ever-increasing frequency.
January’s shutdown fight is unlikely to match the rancor of the fall, when the fight to end federal subsidies for health care plans over the Affordable Care Act’s public exchanges was waged by Democrats in October and November.
With those subsidies set to expire next week, Congress skipped town as the twin Republican majorities failed to offer legislation that would pass the Senate — despite calls by Democrats to engage in bipartisan talks and offer a path forward from their colleagues. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters his caucus would not put up the same resistance it did, then fired last year (to the anger of voters and House Democrats).
“As of January 1, it’s a different time than before because the A.C.A. [subsidies] It’s over,” Schumer said. punchbol news in an interview Last week. “On the other hand, we would like to come up with an appropriations bill. It’s a Jan. 30 deadline… We’re trying to work with Republicans to get it done.”
It remains to be seen whether those negotiations will be larger in scale than those over Obamacare subsidies. In the House, Mike Johnson’s presidency appears more volatile than ever, with members in open rebellion and resignations emerging on a semi-regular basis.
Johnson has two ways to pass the legislation before January 30. He can rely solely on Republican votes, or pass legislation with bipartisan support. Both options come with disadvantages.
A key member of his caucus and a recurring thorn in his side, Marjorie Taylor Greene, will leave the chamber on January 5, reducing her numbers to the low single digits before the shutdown deadline and making it more likely that Johnson could be forced to rely on Democratic votes to pass a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government. A member of his leadership team, Representative Elise Stefanik, has just announced she will not run for re-election and has also dropped out of the New York governor’s race ahead of what is predicted to be a wave year for Democrats.
The chamber’s Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries chairs a caucus that remains dissatisfied with the perceived capitulation of his colleagues in the Senate. He has indicated that Democratic votes will be largely, if not entirely, tied to expanding health care plan payments.
Republican leaders in the House are now concerned that their colleagues in the Senate waited too long to reach out to Democrats on a funding bill, like the negotiations over Obamacare subsidies. Many in both houses want a long-term resolution passed, averting another fight in a few months, but that prospect is becoming more difficult with each passing day.
“We wasted a lot of time because the Senate is not negotiating yet,” said Representative Tom Cole (R-Okla.), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee. told politico Last week. “When they are ready to negotiate, we can move forward quickly.”
Senators from both parties say negotiations were still focused around a full-year funding package as members went home for the holidays last week.
Representative Rosa DeLauro, Cole’s Democratic counterpart on the powerful House panel that leads funding bill negotiations in the lower chamber, faulted Republicans in both chambers.
He pointed to Johnson and Cole’s support for funding bills last year that had no hope of passage with Democratic support because the bills were attempts by the speaker to satisfy House Freedom Caucus demands for lower spending levels. Johnson ultimately passed a clean CR, absent those policy victories for the far right in November, as Democrats mounted their own rebellion in the Senate.
Cole said politico House GOP leadership aims to keep funding for federal agencies at or below the levels approved for the previous fiscal year. It is a sign that Johnson will try to appeal to Republican fiscal supporters rather than Democrats, although that risks passing untested legislation in the Senate, as well as a rebellion within his caucus. But Cole also said he wants funding bill negotiations to be “bipartisan,” meaning conservatives can also remain dissenting. Leadership remains under pressure to pass legislation that could avoid the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold, which would require the participation of seven Senate Democrats.
“We’re not trying to jam anyone,” he said. punchbol news“There are a lot of raw emotions after the shutdown, We are trying to restore trust inside the committee,”
One faction that could play a key role in the coming weeks is GOP moderates and front-line members, who launched their own offensive against Johnson last week by cobbling together a discharge petition with Democrats to force a vote on extending Affordable Care Act subsidies.
Those same members, who already face the biggest political risks in the Republican caucus, may try to push Johnson to shut conservatives out of the discussion. But it could mean the end of Johnson’s speech if those same conservatives refuse to get on board.
A GOP senator supportive of increasing Affordable Care Act subsidies predicted movement on the issue in early January, which many agreed would significantly change the dynamics around meeting the January 30 deadline for CR or passage of long-term funding packages.
“We’re seeing some great activity in the House…I’m pleased with that. I think it will help us drive a response here in the Senate after the first start of the new year, and I’m looking forward to that.” Senator Lisa Murkowski told reporters last week Hill.