With Congress' session drawing to a close, lawmakers are hard at work attempting to enact a full-year budget – but time is running out to find to a consensus.


What You Need To Know

  • With Congress' session drawing to a close, lawmakers are hard at work attempting to enact a full-year budget – but time is running out to find to a consensus

  • Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor Tuesday: "We're working very hard on getting something done before the deadline, but there is a lot of negotiating left to do”  
  • Democrats seem encouraged that they can get a deal done in time, with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the next House Democratic leader, saying that "three weeks is an eternity here in Washington, D.C."

  • But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., struck a different tone, presenting the possibility that lawmakers may have to pass a short-term funding measure, also known as a Continuing Resolution

"We're working very hard on getting something done before the deadline, but there is a lot of negotiating left to do,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on the Senate floor Tuesday.

“Both sides understand that fully funding the government is extremely important and anything fewer risks harm to our troops and the federal government's ability to serve the public," Schumer added. "We don't want to see that outcome, so both sides must remain at the table and continue working."

Democrats seem encouraged that they can get a deal done.

“Three weeks is an eternity here in Washington, D.C., and a lot can happen over the next few weeks to get things over the finish line,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who was recently tapped to succeed Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the leader of the House Democrats. 

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., struck a different tone, presenting the possibility that lawmakers may have to pass a short-term funding measure, also known as a Continuing Resolution.

“We’re running out of time and we don’t have agreements to do virtually anything which would only leave us the only option of a short-term CR into early next year,” McConnell told reporters Tuesday.

Jeffries called McConnell’s remarks “premature,” while Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., a member of the House Appropriations Committee and vice chair of the Democratic caucus, said “it’s still going to take days” to iron out the final details.

“It's also not lost on me the timing of this and Leader McConnell mentioning this on the same day that [House Republican Leader] Kevin McCarthy says we should start kicking this over to January,” Aguilar told reporters. “If our legislative leaders on the other side of the aisle are serious, they'd help us get to a top-line number and we can ensure some regular order to get this done, but hope springs eternal around this place.”

In addition to the government funding, Congress also needs to tackle the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual military funding bill.

A group of Republicans in the Senate, including Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, had threatened to boycott the bill if the COVID-19 vaccination requirement is not dropped for armed service members. The senators said in a press conference last week that they want service members who were discharged for refusing the vaccine reinstated with back pay.

“The most important part of our military isn’t the equipment we give them, it’s the individuals that are willing to serve. And right now what the Biden administration has done with this vaccine mandate and how they’ve handled military members either concerned with either health issues or religious issues are wrong,” Scott said on Tuesday. 

“The NDAA needs to be an NDAA that’s 100% focused on our military," he added. "We need to have a provision that says the Biden administration cannot continue to require the COVID vaccine and if you’ve been kicked out, you should be reinstated.”

But late Tuesday night, lawmakers released the text of the NDAA, which includes rescinding the COVID-19 vaccination mandate, rendering their arguments moot.

Republicans want to defer a government funding bill and other major legislation until next year after they take control of the House, offering them more leverage when it comes to negotiations.

“We're 28 days away from Republicans having the gavel, we would be stronger in every negotiation,” GOP leader McCarthy told Fox News on Monday night. "So any Republican that's out there trying to work with [Democrats] is wrong."

“Why would you want to work on anything, if we have the gavel inside Congress?" he added. "Wait until we're in charge."

But Democrats face the opposite side of the same coin: the pressure to resolve all of these outstanding issues before that happens.

“The notion that extreme MAGA Republicans would threaten to default on our nation's debt for the first time in American history, in order to blow up Social Security and Medicare is stunning,” said Jeffries. “Let's see if we can find a way to deal with it over the next few weeks. If not, we're going to have to confront it next year.”

Democrats already pushed a vote on the Respect for Marriage Act in the House until later in the week and still have hopes for passing legislation on the Electoral Count Act, money for Ukraine, COVID funding and more – but whether they can get it done before having to turn over power in the House remains to be seen.