Senate Majority Leader John Thune has outlined a strategy to prevent a government shutdown in October by pushing for a short-term spending bill, which he believes will be necessary to avoid a fiscal crisis beginning on October 1. Thune said that while many GOP lawmakers are advocating for a stopgap measure, some within the party are pushing for a year-long funding solution that would simply extend current levels of spending. However, Thune cautioned that such an approach would limit the ability of Congress to make decisions on how the government spends its money, which he said is not ideal.
Thune’s plan involves passing a number of the 12 annual funding bills before the deadline, which would allow at least half of the required measures to be approved in time for the impending shutdown threat. The Senate is moving toward its first tranche of funding bills this week, with Thune aiming to pass another three or four in September. However, the Senate will need to negotiate with House Republicans, who are working on their own funding bills that include deeper cuts than many of those being written in the Senate.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise suggested that the House and Senate could use the August recess to resolve differences in their funding measures by negotiating an appropriations process. Scalise also expressed concerns about the use of stopgap funding bills, which would leave in place the previous administration’s policies and would be detrimental to national defense. Both Thune and Scalise agreed that such measures are not ideal but are necessary to avoid a government shutdown.
Meanwhile, the White House is pushing to send another request for funding cuts, with a White House aide indicating that Congress could soon receive a request to greenlight cuts to education programs. Thune has not yet had conversations with the White House about what should be included in this second rescission package, but he said he has not had a lot of visibility into its details beyond general categories.
Senate Democrats are still working out their own shutdown strategy, with many of them warning that Republicans should not expect Democratic support for a funding bill this fall if Republicans continue to follow party-line spending tactics. Some Democrats have suggested that they should make their support for a funding bill conditional on Republicans promising not to vote on any more rescission bills. Thune, however, said he could not guarantee that kind of support, indicating that the situation remains uncertain.