The two-week holiday recess, a contentious health care debate and discharge petition showdowns are squeezing the House’s legislative calendar, raising doubts about whether lawmakers can finalize government funding before the Jan. 30 deadline.
So far, lawmakers have passed only three of the 12 appropriations bills needed to fund the government. They must pass the remaining nine bills — or enact a temporary stopgap measure — to keep the rest of the government running past the end of January. If not, another shutdown is on the table.
But the House has been bogged down by competing priorities.
Republicans are facing mounting pressure as Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies are set to expire at the end of the month. Four GOP lawmakers broke ranks to join Democrats in advancing a discharge petition to bring a three-year subsidy extension bill to the floor in January over the objections of leadership.
Lawmakers expect the Senate to amend the bill if it passes the House. And any bill that passes the Senate with changes has to be sent back to the House for another vote — a process that will likely also be lengthy and contentious.
Complicating matters further is the push for a congressional stock trading ban that is expected to take up additional floor time. House GOP leadership plans to introduce a bill next year after pressure from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), but it’s unclear whether the measure will secure support from the Republican conference. Luna has her own discharge petition going that’s tied to a separate bipartisan stock trading proposal.
House Appropriations Committee Chair Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) acknowledged earlier this month that the health care issue has “tied up both chambers quite a bit,” telling reporters it certainly wouldn’t “help” if the matter drags into January.
“Again, I’m not going to be critical of my colleagues and my leadership for trying to solve a problem I don’t think they created,” he said.
He added that he wants to avoid any delays in the appropriations process.
“It’s just mortifying that the Congress of the United States can’t get its work done in a year. … We had a very difficult schedule this year, but next year’s schedule — again, it’s the election. It’s going to make it tougher, and members are going to want to go home, and leadership on both sides is going to want to have them home,” he said.
He announced Dec. 20 that he reached an agreement with Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on the remaining funding allocations, and that they will “now begin expeditiously drafting” the remaining nine bills.
“Our process will remain member-driven and transparent. Bills will be released with time for review, advanced in packages, and deliver on clear priorities for the American people. The nation deserves stability and a government that works for them,” Cole wrote in a statement.
Still, Republicans are operating on an ambitious timeline. House lawmakers return Jan. 6 and have just 12 legislative days to pass all nine bills. The Senate will have 15 legislative days in January, though the two chambers will be out of session for one week at different times.
And government funding is just one of many pressing issues lawmakers will need to address quickly upon their return.
Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) told The Hill earlier this month that Congress is “never especially good at, you know, getting these things done on time.”
“It was especially problematic that the House wasn’t even here for two months,” Kiley said. “And you know, that’s time that we could have actually been working on the appropriations process in earnest to have bipartisan appropriations bills ready to go.”
If lawmakers aren’t able to pass all nine bills, they will have to resort to passing a stopgap measure, known as a continuing resolution (CR), that would temporarily fund the rest of the government at current levels — a move that will draw resistance from some Republicans.
“Obviously, passing CR after CR, that’s not a good way to run a budget,” Kiley said.
At the same time, Republican leadership must still negotiate with Democrats over ACA subsidies, the issue that precipitated the last government shutdown.
Some House Democrats are already eyeing the Jan. 30 funding deadline as potential leverage if the issue remains unresolved, believing they will have a stronger hand to oppose any funding package since the subsidies would have expired by then.
Rep. Juan Vargas (D-Calif.) previously told The Hill he thinks there should be a shutdown if the ACA issue remains unsettled.
“I think there should be — that’s my opinion, there should be,” Vargas said. “I mean, we can’t kick all of these people off of their health care plans because they can’t afford them. That’s outrageous.”
But even with limited time, some House Republicans remain confident they will meet the Jan. 30 deadline to get government funding across the finish line.
“I’m not worried about it,” Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) said. “I think we’ll figure it out.”