Congress scrambling for stopgap in end-of-year sprint

Congress is scrambling to roll out a government funding bill to avert a shutdown by Friday’s deadline, as lawmakers sprint to wrap up business for the year — and 118th Congress.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was expected to unveil the text of a stopgap on Sunday, but that plan did not come to fruition as negotiators work through last-minute funding hangups. At the top of that list appears to be dollars for farmers, and key lawmakers in both parties are now debating who deserves blame for the delay.

The clock, meanwhile, is ticking: Congress has until Dec. 20 to pass a funding bill or allow the government to shut down in the waning days of the Biden administration.

Also this week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is scheduled to visit Capitol Hill and meet with Senate Republicans as he tries to win support for his nomination to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

On the Senate floor, lawmakers will consider the annual defense bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), after the House cleared the sprawling measure last week.

Lawmakers look to break funding impasse

Lawmakers in both parties and chambers are waiting on congressional negotiators to unveil text for a continuing resolution, looking to vote on the legislation swiftly so they can avert a shutdown by Friday’s funding deadline and depart Washington for the holiday recess.

Johnson and other top members blew through their goal of releasing text on Sunday, as last-minute sticking points gummed up the process — including disagreements over aid for farmers.

Key lawmakers suggested last week that the stopgap, which is expected to run for roughly three months, would include another one-year extension of the 2018 farm bill, as the parties struggled to negotiate a longer-term plan. Members were also discussing appropriating additional dollars for farmers in that package, a prospect that appears to have delayed release of the funding bill text.

The parties are now debating who is to blame.

Sen. John Hoeven (N.D.), the top Republican on the appropriations subcommittee that oversees agriculture funding, wrote in a statement on Saturday that Republicans proposed and GOP leadership endorsed a package with $12 billion of relief for economic losses and $16 billion in weather-related assistance, which Democrats are balking at.

“Republican leadership has supported this offer, and we have made a straightforward proposal to Democratic leadership to come to the aid of farmers and ranchers across the country. While we have kept this proposal clean of potentially partisan additions, we have not yet received the Democratic support we need,” Hoeven wrote.

Democrats, meanwhile, are putting the onus on Republicans. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), the chair of the subcommittee that oversees agriculture funding, and Rep. David Scott (Ga.), the top Democrat on the Agriculture Committee, said GOP lawmakers declined a $10 billion proposal.

“Republican Leadership turned down this $10 Billion proposal, rejecting needed economic assistance and increased conservation spending for decades. It is important to stress that this proposal is paid for and does not take any funding away from the critical natural disaster aid that has been requested,” the pair wrote in a statement on Saturday.

“The coming onslaught of farm foreclosures and retirement sales is on the Republican Leadership,” they added.

The debate is set to come to a head early this week, when lawmakers return to the Capitol with little time left to avert a shutdown. House Republicans have demanded that Johnson provide lawmakers with at least 72 hours to review legislation before voting on it, meaning the earliest the House could vote on a stopgap is Thursday.

RFK Jr. begins meetings with senators

Kennedy will begin making the rounds on Capitol Hill this week, as the former Democrat and ex-presidential candidate seeks confirmation to be Trump’s secretary of Health and Human Services.

The meetings come as Kennedy has faced some skepticism for previous comments questioning vaccines and amplifying the debunked theory that the jabs cause autism.

Kennedy’s meetings this week include a huddle with Republican health staff from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, in preparation for a later meeting with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), the incoming chair of the panel.

Kennedy’s visit comes on the heels of outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who survived polio as a young boy, blasting the nominee's views regarding vaccines, a sign that Kennedy could face some roadblocks in his quest for confirmation.

The New York Times reported last week that a lawyer, Aaron Siri, helping Kennedy hire health officials for the Trump administration has petitioned the federal government to revoke approval for the polio vaccine. In a statement that does not mention Kennedy nor Siri, McConnell blasted vaccine skepticism and voiced support for medical treatments.

“Evidence to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed — they’re dangerous,” McConnell wrote. “Anyone seeking the Senate’s consent to serve in the incoming Administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts.”

Senate takes up NDAA

The Senate will take up NDAA this week as the upper chamber looks to wrap up business ahead of the holiday recess.

The House last week cleared the mammoth $883.7 billion package, which includes a 14.5 percent pay raise for junior enlisted service members and a 4.5 percent increase for all other members.

The Senate is scheduled to hold the first procedural vote on the legislation Monday, setting the stage for final passage later in the week. Lawmakers are facing an end-of-the-year deadline to approve the bill.

While the upper chamber is expected to clear the must-pass measure in a bipartisan vote, the final tally could be more partisan than usual after negotiators included a provision in the package that is drawing ire from Democrats. The language would restrict the use of funds from TRICARE, the health care program for active-duty service members, for gender-affirming care for the children 18 years and younger of service members.

The House approved the NDAA in a bipartisan 281-140 vote, but 124 Democrats voted “no,” signaling resistance to the provision.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) nodded to that provision in a statement last week, but said the chamber would “keep working” despite that detail.

“This year’s NDAA has some very good things we Democrats wanted in it, it has some bad things we wouldn’t have put in there, and some things that were left out,” Schumer said. “But we're going to keep working. We're going to keep working at it. Both sides are working well together and I hope we can finish the job soon.”