President Joe Biden has invited the top four congressional leaders to the White House on Tuesday, aiming to avoid a partial federal government shutdown that would start this weekend if lawmakers can’t approve additional funding by Friday’s midnight deadline.
Funding for the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs expires on Friday. Funding for other government agencies expires March 8.
The leaders include Republicans and Democrats from both the Senate and House.
Biden is also pushing House lawmakers to move forward on a $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and humanitarian aid that the Senate passed earlier this month. National security adviser Jake Sullivan told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin “would love to see” Congress not approve more military aid for Ukraine, which on Saturday marked the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
Although the bill has bipartisan support among members in both chambers, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) hasn’t brought it to a floor vote, in part because of objections from House Freedom Caucus members.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) on Sunday criticized Johnson for not releasing the four appropriations bills lawmakers must approve this week.
“Unless Republicans get serious, the extreme Republican shutdown will endanger our economy, raise costs, lower safety, and exact untold pain on the American people,” Schumer said. He called on Johnson to “once again buck the extremists in his caucus and do the right thing” to keep the federal government open.
Johnson blamed the delays on what he called “new Democrat demands,” and countered that the House has been working nonstop and in good faith. He said Republicans were trying to rein in Democrats’ “overspending and policies that are harming the economy.”
Republicans’ narrow 219-212 House majority means Johnson will likely need Democratic votes to help pass the bills. That could endanger his standing with some House Freedom Caucus members who might try to boot him from the speaker’s role, as they did to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Even if lawmakers are able to approve spending for federal agencies this week, they face the second deadline to extend funding for the Commerce, Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Interior, Justice, Labor, and State Departments.
A third option would be for lawmakers to pass a spending bill to keep the government open through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, but that would trigger automatic spending cuts of up to 9% for nondefense spending under the terms of an agreement forged last year.
Write to Janet H. Cho at janet.cho@dowjones.com
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