Republicans in the House of Representatives will meet Monday evening to discuss a massive spending bill that they still haven’t seen and isn’t finished just days ahead of the deadline.
Aides and members say that work is still ongoing as lawmakers scramble to resolve a host of outstanding policy disagreements from a controversial rail program between New York and New Jersey to a health care market stabilization package that has become intertwined with the must-pass spending bill.
Lawmakers need to fund the government before midnight Friday.
Among the top unresolved issues remain what to do about the Affordable Care Act and whether to attach legislation aimed at stabilizing the Obamacare marketplace and driving down insurance premiums.
Over the weekend, according to two people familiar with the call, President Donald Trump spoke directly with the legislation’s top sponsors Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and expressed his support for the plan. But Democrats have rebuffed abortion restrictions that Republicans want to include in it. And some conservatives have balked at spending money to prop up a health care system they tried to repeal last year.
“I’m still optimistic it’s going to be included,” Collins said Monday evening as she entered a meeting about the payments. “It is the right thing to do. It would result in rate decreases that would provide substantial relief.”
But health care is hardly the only issue causing tension in the negotiations. According to several aides who spoke with CNN, the omnibus isn’t expected to include legislation that would modernize the process victims on Capitol Hill undergo when they report harassment. Reports that it would not be included in the must-pass spending bill prompted Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York, to release a blistering statement.
“I am appalled that House and Senate leadership removed provisions from the omnibus bill at the last minute that would have finally brought accountability and transparency to Congress’s sexual harassment reporting process,” Gillibrand said. “It begs the question: Who are they trying to protect?”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s spokesman David Popp argued that nothing was removed last minute, but instead that the negotiations were ongoing.
Another issue that may go untouched is immigration. Some had hoped that the White House and Capitol Hill could find a way to protect recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in the spending negotiations.
But instead, a source familiar told CNN that the White House and congressional negotiators hit an impasse Sunday after the White House offered Democrats $25 billion in wall funding in exchange for a two and a half year continuation of DACA. A counter offer was made to demand a path to citizenship for 1.8 million DACA eligible individuals in exchange for full wall funding, but according to the source familiar with the discussion, the White House passed. Politico was the first to report the negotiation.
At this point, controversial riders may be scrapped rather than included in an effort to stave off any government shutdown. Republicans were still trying to find a way to correct some errors in their tax bill, but those negotiations were hitting headwinds as Democrats demanded concessions for the changes.
For now, the race is on to get the bill out the door and to the floor where it can get a vote before Friday.
