Month: January 2024

House and Senate Appropriations Committee leaders made important progress toward a March 2024 government funding deal late last week, but much work remains ahead. Notably, Chairs Kay Granger (R-TX) and Patty Murray (D-WA) struck an agreement on funding allocations — otherwise known as 302(b)s — for all 12 spending bills in fiscal year (FY) 2024. The allocations, which have yet to be posted publicly as of this writing, will allow appropriators to write, finalize, and pass funding bills during the February work period. Depending on the overall level of bipartisan cooperation during this process, a March 2024 funding deal could be used to carry other pending legislative efforts around health care, tax, and more. The funding deadline for Agriculture-FDA, Military Construction-VA, Energy-Water, and Transportation-HUD will run through March 1, with everything else — including Labor-HHS-Education — funded through March 8.

• Meanwhile… A bipartisan group of senators, including Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT), James Lankford (R-OK), and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), are hoping to produce legislative text for a supplemental appropriations package that includes foreign aid and border security, but it remains to be seen whether this forthcoming agreement can earn the 60 votes needed for passage. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has also characterized the contours of the deal as “dead-on-arrival” in the Republican-controlled House.

Senate Republicans met yesterday to discuss a path forward on supplemental funding for foreign aid and border security as negotiations on a bipartisan deal continue behind the scenes. According to reports out of Capitol Hill, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) cast doubt on whether an agreement would come to fruition, especially given the opposition from both House Republicans and former President Donald Trump — the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. As Senate Republicans continue their internal deliberations on how to proceed, the lead negotiators for the package — Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT), James Lankford (R-OK), and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) — are continuing their efforts to finalize bill text for consideration as soon as next week. Lingering disagreements over asylum and parole policies, as well as figuring out how much money to allocate toward broader border policy changes, are among some of the last remaining holdups.

• Next week in Congress… The Senate will return for legislative business on Monday to hold a procedural vote on the nomination of Christopher Koos to serve on the Amtrak Board of Directors. While the chamber continues to churn through nominations, a bipartisan group of senators will resume their efforts to produce a supplemental funding package that includes foreign aid funds along with border security policy changes. If a deal comes together over the weekend or early next week, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is expected to file votes during next week’s session. Meanwhile, the House will be out next week and is slated to return on Monday, January 29.

Both chambers will meet for legislative business today as Congress races to pass another continuing resolution (CR) to avoid a partial shutdown later this week. Notably, the Senate advanced the legislative vehicle that will carry the stopgap funding measure during yesterday’s session on a bipartisan basis. Senators will now resume their discussions on reaching a “time agreement” to speed things along, but some amendment votes could be needed to ensure cooperation among the entire 100-member body. On the House side, lawmakers will consider a suspension bill out of the Ways and Means Committee that seeks to improve foster and adoptive parent recruitment and retention before moving onto a resolution that criticizes the Biden administration’s policies at the U.S.-Mexico border.

• Supplemental Update. House and Senate leadership will meet with President Joe Biden at the White House later this afternoon to discuss the state of talks regarding funding for Ukraine and border security policy changes. While a bipartisan group of Senate negotiators are hoping to unveil a deal on the long-anticipated supplemental funding bill this week, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and House Republicans have maintained their insistence that the GOP’s Protect the Border Act (H.R. 2) must be included in its entirety in order for additional foreign aid to pass the chamber. In addition to opposition from congressional Democrats and the White House, Senate Republican leadership has pushed back on the notion that H.R. 2 would receive the requisite votes needed for passage, both now and in a potential GOP-controlled Senate in 2025. As such, we’ll be watching to see if there’s any notable movement in border and foreign aid talks as a result of today’s White House meeting.

With Congress far behind on the appropriations process prior to this Friday’s deadline, Congressional leadership formally introduced another continuing resolution (CR) over the weekend that would extend both government funding deadlines into March. The stopgap funding bill would set a deadline of March 1 for Agriculture-FDA, Military Construction-VA, Transportation-HUD, and Energy-Water, with everything else — including Labor-HHS-Education — funded through March 8. Lawmakers will now race to pass this stopgap prior to the end of the week, and bipartisan cooperation will be vital toward avoiding a partial shutdown in a short period of time.

• Next Steps. The Senate is set to act first on the CR this week, and leadership will be seeking a “time agreement” to expedite the process so that Congress does not brush up too closely to the deadline. While the stopgap is likely to pass with strong bipartisan support, some politically-tricky amendment votes could be needed to ensure cooperation among all 100 senators to speed things along. Upon passage in the Senate, it is anticipated that House leadership will bring up the CR under suspension of the rules later this week.

• Health Update. In addition to extending government funding, the CR contains extensions for various expiring health care priorities. These extensions include: (1) community health centers, teaching health centers, and the National Health Service Corps; (2) special diabetes programs; (3) a delay of certain disproportionate share payment cuts; (4) Medicare’s work geographic index floor; and (5) the Sexual Risk Avoidance Education program. The stopgap does not address a range of other health care priorities that need to be addressed early this year, including various opioid and pandemic preparedness programs that are due for extensions. To that end, look for health care leaders in Congress to continue their efforts to craft a sweeping health care package that could carry these aforementioned policies, as well as other bipartisan efforts around Medicare physician pay, price transparency, and more.