SENATE TO HOUSE GOP: “DROP THE RIDERS” Policy riders pushed by House Republicans have become a major obstacle to a deal to avert a partial shutdown this weekend. Some of their colleagues across the Capitol are telling them to drop it. Lawmakers are impatiently waiting for congressional leaders to announce a spending deal, as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker Mike Johnson trade barbs over who is at fault for holding up negotiations. But neither side disputes that House GOP leaders are pushing partisan policy riders, such as a ban on mail delivery of abortion pills and a pilot program proposed by Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) that would restrict SNAP food aid purchases. Many Senate Republicans don’t see the point.“The bills need to be as clean as they can be,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said Monday evening. When asked about the riders the House GOP specifically is pushing, Capito pointed out that she has already voted for a Senate spending bill that didn’t include any of the controversial riders. “As always, the task at hand will require that everyone rows in the same direction: Toward clean appropriations and away from poison pills,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a Monday floor speech. He also told reporters: “We are not going to allow the government to shut down.” The intraparty criticism reflects a growing annoyance among many Republican senators who are tired of their House colleagues exacerbating repeated shutdown threats. The GOP has a solid shot of winning the Senate in November, and the conference doesn’t want to see those chances dragged down by a public perception that the party as a whole can’t govern. “Everybody’s at the table. We’re all working really hard to get this done. If the House Republicans would back off their extreme policy riders, we’d be through,” said Patty Murray, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. One note: Johnson has said part of the hold up is also Schumer’s push for more funding for a federal nutrition program that supports low-income moms and babies. “We want to get this done. The issue between us is we’re not going to have a bunch of extreme policy riders. We’ve told them that from the beginning,” Murray added. “We’re not talking about tiny little things. They’re asking for huge, extreme things.” Flashback: When the Senate voted on a “minibus” last year, which included the Military Construction-VA, Agriculture, and Transportation-HUD appropriations bills (three of the four bills that expire on Friday), it passed with resounding bipartisan support: 82-15. A week is an eternity in Congress time, so a deal could still come together and pass both chambers before Friday. But that gets a lot harder if lawmakers don’t see a deal by Wednesday, at the latest. — Daniella Diaz, with assist from Caitlin Emma and Ursula Perano
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