Top Senate appropriators, including Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, are privately warning colleagues that spending talks are running behind schedule, Axios reported.
The stopgap funding bill that passed in late December expires March 14, and talks between the Senate and House just began recently, according to the Wednesday report.
Collins and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., are concerned that spending talks have been put on the back burner with reconciliation planning on the forefront ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, according to Axios.
If the House and Senate don’t soon make significant progress on the $30 billion gap in their respective spending budgets, they’ll be forced into another continuing resolution in March or face a government shutdown, according to the report. An omnibus spending package is the other alternative but likely would not pass with House conservatives eager to dramatically cut spending.
The House needed three tries to pass the stopgap bill that funds the federal government through March 14, ultimately passing the measure hours before the Dec. 20 midnight deadline to shut down the government.
The spending deal did not deal with the federal debt ceiling — key for Trump.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., warned afterward that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will face a huge challenge in 2025 as lower-chamber Republicans will have a slim majority.
“It’s going to be really hard in the House because they just simply don’t have a working majority,” Rounds said then.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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