With no quick resolution in sight, lawmakers are gearing up to work through the weekend. And a key question looms: Will they will be able to avert a government shutdown as the clock ticks down to midnight?
Most lawmakers believe the two sides will agree to extend government funding for a few more days while relief talks continue. But this is Congress, where even the easy things can be hard to do.
Senate GOP leaders have been openly talking about how it may be necessary to pass a stopgap bill -- called a continuing resolution, or CR -- to extend the shutdown deadline for a brief window of up to 48 hours, though Democratic leaders have so far been unwilling to embrace that call in an effort to pressure Republicans to finalize a relief deal.
To pull off passage of a short-term funding bill just hours before midnight, it would require bipartisan cooperation and all 100 senators to agree to schedule a vote. At the moment, that cooperation is lacking, top Republicans say.
Also there are many more issues to sort out before the two sides can secure an economic rescue package in the final days of the 116th Congress and after months of bitter stalemate.
"It's a little bit of whack-a-mole, you know, whack it here and something else pops up," said Senate Majority Whip John Thune of South Dakota. "There's a lot of interaction between the moving parts of all this, and getting it all lined up at the same time is proving to be pretty hard."
If a lapse in government funding occurs, it would begin over the weekend and could be so brief that it would have virtually no impact on government operations.
But there would still be major risks involved -- especially if they're unable to resolve their impasse, causing a protracted shutdown in the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic, raging economic crisis and a high-stakes vaccine rollout.
Moreover, even a brief shutdown would almost certainly inflame partisan tensions that could make efforts to finish negotiations over a stimulus package even more complicated.
A partisan blame game over a shutdown could also be damaging for both parties with little time left before the consequential Georgia Senate runoff races take place in January that will determine control of the chamber in the new Congress.
The holdup in finalizing a deal comes as a result of a slate of issues that have yet to be resolved.
The relief deal, which could have a price tag of close to $900 billion, is expected to include money for vaccine distribution and schools, jobless benefits of $300 per week, roughly $330 billion for small business loans, and a new round of stimulus checks, which could be set at around $600 per individual under a certain income threshold -- half the amount given under the March stimulus law.
The leadership is facing pressure from the right and left to tweak the deal before it's unveiled.
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said he plans to go to the floor on Friday to ask for a vote on his bill to provide direct payments of $1,200 for individuals and $2,400 for families. Hawley said "all options are on the table" when asked on Thursday if he would object to a continuing resolution.
In the talks, outstanding issues include whether there should be further restrictions on who should be eligible for the one-time checks and whether and how long to extend the eviction moratorium, as some Republicans argue that providing rental assistance could be sufficient. Democrats disagree.
Other issues still to be settled include a push by Republicans to restrict the Federal Reserve's emergency lending authority, something Democrats complain would hamstring the incoming Biden administration.
The leadership has also continued to negotiate how Federal Emergency Management Agency money for states and cities would be structured, according to sources, something Democrats are pushing but Republicans are resisting.
For now, lawmakers are bracing for the possibility that a lapse in government funding may trigger a midnight shutdown.
"There may be a partial lapse. It's clear we're here for the weekend," Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, said on Thursday. "It seems to me that the issues that remain unresolved are bridgeable. But the question is how long does that take."
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December 18, 2020 at 09:44PM
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