The House and Senate are out of session. And when lawmakers return next week, they’ll face a three-week sprint to the end of the 118th Congress centered around resolving two huge issues — government funding and the annual defense authorization bill.
Both of these are “must pass” bills, so Hill leaders and the White House have to come to a deal. We’ll tackle government funding first, and then look at the National Defense Authorization Act.
Government funding: The current continuing resolution funding federal agencies runs out on Dec. 20. With President-elect Donald Trump taking office just weeks later — and more importantly, a floor vote for speaker on Jan. 3 — Speaker Mike Johnson wants to pass a short-term CR that extends into 2025. That would provide Trump to his stamp on government funding while mollifying hardline conservatives that Johnson needs – and will likely get – to stay in his post.
The issue is how long the CR will last. We’ve now heard Republicans are considering a mid-March end date. This is a change from earlier suggestions of a late January or February deadline.
This is all tentative, there’s no deal right now and the discussions remain fluid. Democrats complain that different Republicans are saying different things. We’ll also note Johnson needs Democrats and the White House to pass anything, so this is a challenge for him.
Once there is a bipartisan deal on the CR’s end date, it’ll still take some time to finish drafting the package, run all the traps on both sides and pass the measure on the floor. The Senate needs a week to pass anything unless there’s an agreement to move faster. All of which means that Hill leaders and the White House, along with Trump, need to move quickly to reach some kind of consensus once Congress is back in town.
Don’t underestimate the importance of disaster aid here, either. While the final package won’t be the nearly $99 billion that President Joe Biden requested, it’ll still be a huge amount. The challenge for those lawmakers from impacted states — especially North Carolina and Georgia — is whether they can get more next year under a Republican president.
NDAA: Congress has passed a defense authorization bill every year for the past six decades-plus, and 2024 isn’t going to be any different. The NDAA sets U.S. defense policy as well as a topline spending figure, though it’s ultimately up to appropriators to figure that out. More on this below.
Legislative text for the compromise bill is likely to be made public as soon as the end of next week. Before that happens, the House and Senate Armed Services panels will kick it up to party leaders to hammer out the few remaining hang-ups. It’s worth noting that the controversial culture-war provisions included in the House GOP bill won’t be in the final product.
The Big Four need to decide on a topline number. You’ll recall that this was a major point of contention when the Senate Armed Services Committee approved its version of the bill back in June. At the urging of the panel’s top Republican, Sen. Roger Wicker (Miss.), the committee approved a $25 billion topline boost, bringing it to a staggering $923 billion.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the committee’s chair, took the extraordinary step of voting against the final bill. At the time, Reed noted that the topline increase — if enacted by appropriators — would trigger sequestration under the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
The House will likely move to pass the bill first, which means Senate passage probably won’t come until the week before Christmas. Cutting it close!
Also happening … Senate Democrat leadership elections: Senate Democrats will convene a week from today for their leadership elections. Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) will remain the top two Democrats in the 119th Congress, but the No. 3 position will be vacant with the retirement of Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.).
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has expressed interest in the role, which heads up Senate Democratic messaging. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), the current No. 4 in Democratic leadership, could also seek the post.
