Congress is in the middle of a year-end government spending deal, and Republicans are fighting over it. Even as congressional negotiators pushed toward an agreement that was broadly unveiled Tuesday night, there was dissent within the GOP over whether to embrace a deal that would make things easier for a potential Speaker Kevin McCarthy next year. It all adds up to a spending agreement that has been in the works for months. Senate Republicans are trying to push a massive spending bill through despite conservative opposition. They're betting that locking in government funding through September will deliver a huge amount of aid to Ukranian and remove an early landmine from McCarthy's path. McConnell probably has the votes to pass a deal, but angst is driving down GOP support. Few House Republicans can be counted on to support a spending deal if McCarthy's allies acknowledge that it would ease their to-do list. McCarthy is aligning with conservatives who want Congress to punt, thus denying Democrats a year-end win. Kevin Cramer said that it was a very unfortunate place for the party to be in.
Cramer is undecided and criticized both the deal and delay approaches. I'm concerned that a new House will have to start from the back. Negative consequences could befall that.
As he fights to become speaker and win over his doubters, McCarthy can afford to take a dim view of a big year-end spending bill. Republicans are hoping that the outgoing House Democratic majority will be able to pass the legislation on their own.
House GOP leaders are likely to skewer the deal as another big Joe Biden-backed spending bill if McConnell fails to get at least 10 Republicans to avoid a filibuster. As the Senate GOP holds a special meeting Wednesday that's sure to include lengthy internal debate over the merits of cutting a bipartisan spending deal, the Kentucky Republican would prefer to have a majority of his conference on board.
On the other side of the Capitol, the spending bill can't be separated from McCarthy's speaker election in January.
It would take a delicate balancing act between the House Republican majority and the Senate Democratic majority to kick the government funding debate until next year. It's better that Kevin McCarthy doesn't have to negotiate because it's too much to ask.
McCarthy doesn't seem to want assistance. Several people in the room said that the Californian trashed the deal in a closed-door meeting on Tuesday. McCarthy said the process was led by the retiring Appropriations Committee duo. Attendees said no one in the room defended the deal.
Political calculations are difficult for McConnell. He faced his first opposition as GOP leader last month and a group of conservatives are scheming to instill a more aggressive posture in the conference.
If there is a deal at all, his members will be watching it.
"If Senator McConnell rams through an omnibus, I think he needs to be able to demonstrate vividly, with detail, why we would get a better deal doing it through a Republican House." If my leader rams it through and can't explain why we can get a better deal, then I'm not sure why we should wait. The man will be criticized.
McConnell favors a broad deal that increases defense spending. He made it clear that he wouldn't be here between Christmas and New Year's.
McConnell might be able to get the votes he needs if the spending measure comes together. It won't be pretty, and even some of his closest allies are on the fence about pushing through a package that will include changes to presidential election certification.
There are a lot of positives in there. There is a lot of ugly things in there. The member of GOP leadership who is undecided said she hasn't seen the text yet. It's difficult to say.
The low regard McCarthy has for the spending talks is reflected by his top spending leader. She described her role as second level.
Senate negotiators will need an additional week-long stopgap fix known as a continuing resolution to get the time they need to finalize any agreement. A member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus said of the emerging deal: "We'll have a short-termcontinuing resolution so we can let Richard Shelby build a new monument to himself." It is not possible to say yes. Enough of that stupid stuff.
Despite the enormous headaches it could pose, McCarthy has told his members that he prefers a stopgap into the new year. The right side of his conference is pressuring him to take a big chunk out of federal spending.
The same Republicans who are pushing significant budget cuts next year as part of a deal to lift the debt ceiling are also pushing another fiscal lift. It is not yet clear how soon party leaders will need to act.
Senior House GOP lawmakers have been warning for weeks about putting off big spending decisions until next year, when the conference will be setting up a new Congress and confronting the debt limit. navigating a speaker's race with the smallest of margins is one of the factors.
House Republicans are going to be suspicious. Aderholt said that McCarthy made that clear in the conference. It will be good to get it out of the way. We'll see.
Republicans in both chambers have differing views on that. The opaque negotiations this holiday season amount to a new low according to Sen. James Lankford. It's even for us.
Jordain was involved in this report.
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