House Republicans have offered a deal for a one-month stopgap funding bill to avoid a government shutdown which would exempt defense from a spending cut and has an anomaly for the Columbia-class submarine program but does not include funds for Ukraine aid.
The continuing resolution (CR) proposal, however, has already received pushback from Democrats and some GOP members, with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) having to navigate his thin majority to garner support. The measure is also likely to face steep opposition with the Democratic-led Senate for its cuts to non-defense spending and lack of Ukraine assistance.
“The 30-day CR does two things: 1. Secure the southern border. 2. Cut government spending by 8 percent. There is NO Ukraine [dollars]. The truth is Congress needs more time to do the necessary spending cuts and reforms to stop the weaponization of our government and save our country,” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), a lead negotiator of the CR proposal, said in a social media post.
The House is likely to vote on the one-month CR proposal this week as lawmakers look to avoid a government shutdown with the end of the fiscal year looming and allow for more time to work on completing final spending bills.
The lower chamber is also aiming to vote on its FY ‘24 defense appropriations legislation in the coming days, which would be the second attempt after House GOP leadership pulled a procedural vote last week.
The House Appropriations Committee advanced the $826.5 billion defense spending bill with a party line vote in June, after Democrats objected to the legislation’s nearly $2 billion cut to multi-year procurement for select munitions and a slew of GOP-led proposals Democratic members criticized as “needlessly divisive” (Defense Daily, June 22).
The CR deal rolled out on Sunday includes a 7.8 percent spending cut to non-defense during the stopgap funding window, while exempting defense, Veterans Affairs and disaster relief funding.
A summary of the CR notes the bill “gives full flexibility for DoD to initiate new starts and to have procurement flexibility” and includes the White House’s requested anomaly for the Columbia-class submarine program.
The Biden administration in late August requested that Congress’ consideration of a short-term funding bill to avoid a government shutdown include a provision allowing planned funds for the Columbia-class nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine program to avoid delays (Defense Daily, Aug. 31).
Anomalies allow for exceptions to a CR’s’ restrictions locking in spending at the previous fiscal year’s spending levels and blocking the Pentagon from starting new programs.
A number of House Republicans, including Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), have already signalized their opposition to the CR deal.
“This is a terrible bill, lumping the funding of disparate agencies of government into one BAD VOTE. This isn’t what we fought for in January. It is the opposite. And it doesn’t have the votes,” Gaetz said in a social media post.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee, noted Democrats’ opposition to the CR proposal, including the lack of Ukraine aid and the increasing likelihood of a shutdown.
“Less than two weeks away from a government shutdown, House Republicans are still more focused on introducing extreme funding bills that would cut funding to the National Institutes of Health including funding for cancer research, defund the police, and decrease resources to important allies like Ukraine and Israel than working on bipartisan solution that could be enacted,” DeLauro said in a statement. “House Republicans want to shut down the government because House Democrats, Senate Republicans and Democrats, and President Biden oppose their extreme cuts that will make working families pay even more for the things they need at a time when the cost of living is already too high.”
The Biden administration in August sent Congress a new supplemental spending request, which calls for $5 billion in further Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funding, which is used to award contracts to industry to meet Ukraine weapons needs, and another $4.5 billion to replace DoD weapons stocks and reimburse the department for services, education and training provided to Ukraine (Defense Daily, Aug. 10).
In late July, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted near unanimously to advance its own $831.8 billion FY ‘24 defense spending bill, which includes $8 billion for emergency spending above the defense spending cap mandated by the debt ceiling agreement (Defense Daily, July 27).