HOUSE GOP HARDLINERS LEARN TO LOVE THE SPENDING STOPGAP Conservatives are typically loath to sign off on any government spending patch aimed at averting a shutdown, slamming those stopgaps as further evidence of a broken Washington stuck on a woeful fiscal trajectory. But this year is different. After gleefully rejecting four continuing resolutions in recent months as funding talks wobbled, members on Speaker Mike Johnson’s right flank now say Congress needs one that lasts into next year after federal cash dries up at the end of September. Their hope is that the November election finally grants GOP hardliners the necessary leverage (read: extra votes) to enact steep spending cuts and conservative policies across a slate of fiscal 2025 spending bills. “The CR should be into next year, not into the lame duck,” said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). “Because you want to give the new president a chance to weigh in on what we spend and where we spend it.” “We know there’s going to be a CR. I think that CR will go into [2025],” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas). “I think you shouldn’t drop it into a lame duck, because frankly nothing good happens for America in a lame duck.” Congress is used to election-year funding patches, in fact. Spending negotiations for the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1 almost certainly won’t begin in earnest until after Election Day. If control of Congress and the White House remains the same, a lame-duck funding deal is very possible … maybe even likely. But any big power shifts in Republicans’ favor this fall could send the GOP pushing for as much as it can get after the start of the next Congress in January 2025, when Donald Trump could retake the White House. House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole doesn’t recommend that tack. “That’s a mistake,” the Oklahoma Republican told us, noting that he argued against that strategy in 2016, when congressional leaders punting funding work into Trump’s presidency. “Whoever loses in the Senate will still have the filibuster. And so the idea that you're gonna get a dramatically better deal is not true,” Cole said. “And if we win the presidency — and I think we will — I don't think President Trump should have to worry about the last Congress.” Funding the government during the lame-duck session — which occurs between the election and the end of the year, before power could potentially change hands — is “the swamp move,” said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). He added that the “Massie cuts” he got included in last year’s debt-limit deal are still in play next April if Congress ends up trying for a long punt. But it's in Democrats’ interest to fund the government during that window, when they know for certain that they still control the White House and the Senate. “I’m not for dragging it out,” Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), a senior party appropriator, told us. “You start a new Congress without having funded the government. That is … not regular order — and Chip Roy talks about regular order all the time.” Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), another appropriator, verbally shrugged at hardliners’ desire to pass a stopgap into next year. “Eh, they say lots of stuff,” he quipped. “It’s fantasy Congress with these guys.” Why a stopgap is inevitable: Congress is currently constrained to strict funding levels for the coming fiscal year that were set by last summer’s bipartisan debt deal. Senate appropriators and leaders are sparring over whether that’s enough money for the military, and whether domestic programs should receive an equal increase in cash if lawmakers blow past the defense funding cap. House Republicans, meanwhile, are once again advocating for abiding by the budget caps — but relitigating “side deals” struck under the debt limit agreement hatched by President Joe Biden and then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy. “Look, we know what the [debt deal] topline is. So I think we live by that,” Cole told us. “There's disagreement about what the side deals were. And all that becomes, seems to me, a negotiating arena for leadership. Do I think the election impacts that? Yeah, I do.” Cole hopes to divvy up funding totals for a dozen appropriations bills by the end of next week. “We’re going to try and give our cardinals round numbers to work with,” he said, noting that those totals will “adjust over time.” That includes later this month, when the Congressional Budget Office reports on cash flowing into federal coffers, like fees from mortgage refinancing. Regarding holiday plans: Until after Election Day, most of the arguing over funding levels will be in vain, said Pocan. “Whatever we do is going to be kabuki theater, because obviously we're not going to have a budget done,” the Wisconsin Democrat said, before offering a bummer of a winter forecast. Given the likelihood of late-calendar haggling, he added, “my guess is I'm not going to travel anywhere over the holidays.” — Caitlin Emma and Jennifer Scholtes GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Inside Congress, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on Tuesday, May 7, where this kind of swamp humidity has no business being so gross before summer has even officially begun.
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