Beyond the Shutdown, Federal Appropriations Challenges Loom

In a press call hosted by House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., and the House Freedom Caucus, Republican members of Congress weighed in on the future of federal appropriations whether or not the stopgap spending continuing resolution languishing in the Senate is passed. 

“Republicans have been moving their committee stuff forward as best they can, but … you can’t do everything during a government shutdown. You can’t talk about what the next one is going to be until you open it up in the first place,” Emmer told The Daily Signal in the press call. 

The federal government shutdown is now nearly a month old. Republicans have pointed out the harms caused by the obstruction from all but two or three Senate Democrats, who continue to prevent the continuing resolution from receiving the 60-vote threshold it needs to reach to pass. This week, for example, Kelly Loeffler, the administrator of the Small Business Administration, held a news conference with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., about the adverse effects currently facing small businesses as a result of the shutdown. 

“The SBA’s loan-guarantee programs have been halted, and Main Street’s capital has been choked off, because Senate Democrats are playing politics with lives and livelihoods. They’re demanding $1.5 trillion in taxpayer money to fund health care for illegal aliens and other liberal causes,” Loeffler told reporters on Monday.

Emmer emphasized to The Daily Signal on Wednesday that House members continue to prioritize the normal appropriations process even as the continuing resolution languishes in the Senate. The latter would only fund the government until Nov. 21.

“Just keep in mind, [continuing resolutions] are not the easiest things to pass on the Republican side of the aisle. Our members do not like continuing resolutions. They want regular order appropriations. They’re willing to do a CR in order to get back to regular order,” Emmer told The Daily Signal. 

Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said, “The bottom line is that we were in the middle of negotiating the first three appropriations bills with the Senate.”

Senate Democrats have repeatedly blocked the continuing resolution from reaching the 60-vote threshold needed to become law, even though it obtained majorities in both Republican-controlled chambers of Congress. Senate Democrats have also prevented individual bills to pay essential federal workers, including members of the military, and to fund the Department of War. 

“I think we could probably come to agreement within days on that, maybe even open up negotiations for a couple of more before the [Nov.] 21st deadline, but then obviously, we’d have to operate on a continuing resolution again. I just want to remind everyone that the SNAP benefits, which were paid in October were paid with leftover funds, which, of course, are not there anymore. So, SNAP benefits will disappear on Day One of a new shutdown,” Harris warned. 

The post Beyond the Shutdown, Federal Appropriations Challenges Loom appeared first on The Daily Signal.