A sheet of freshly printed one-dollar bills is ready for inspection at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington. (Getty Images)
Usually, the need to wrap up annual bills to fund the government is a necessary but wearisome chore for lawmakers. This year, though, it could be crucial to helping the economy.
That’s because the stopgap bill funding the government is set to expire Dec. 11, a date sandwiched almost evenly between the Nov. 3 election and the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration. With a new bill needed to keep the government’s lights on and the election over, the next temporary funding bill could be crucial to getting at least some more stalled economic stimulus enacted into law.
So-called continuing resolutions have long been used as legislative vehicles for other priorities in the past. And they are hardy perennials — Congress has not completed annual appropriations on time — before the new budget year starts on Oct. 1 – since 1996, when it got all 13 fiscal 1997 bills done. Since then, there’s been at least one CR annually, according to the Congressional Research Service.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has also mused publicly about the idea of doing stimulus in the next CR.
“I came down a trillion dollars and then another $200 billion. Not that we eliminated priorities, but we changed the time table for how long that would last. And then we took some things out and put them in the appropriations bill because that’s imminent now, too,” Pelosi said in describing stimulus talks in an MSNBC interview Oct. 2.
“It’s so late that that’s imminent, that we have to come to terms once again to keep government open,” she said.
Scott Mulhauser, partner and public affairs lead at Bully Pulpit Interactive who helped run the Senate Finance Committee for the Democrats from 2009 to 2012, said Democrats in particular will want a deal, whether soon or in the post-election lame duck session.
“If the deal can’t get done pre-election, the chances to land it in the lame-duck Congress at the end of the year are higher than many think,” he said in an email.
“That opportunity post-election could be the last shot for Trump and McConnell to put feathers in their caps while letting Democrats focus on relief and clear big fights off the docket, allowing a potential new President and new Congress to get to work on next steps next year.”
Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin talked again Monday for almost an hour and “continued to narrow their differences,” according to a Pelosi spokesman. Pelosi set a 48-hour deadline expiring at the end of the day Tuesday for getting to a deal and trying to get it passed before the Nov. 3 Election Day.
In a letter to her fellow Democrats Sunday, Pelosi listed coronavirus testing provisions, tax credits, state and local government aid and the U.S. Census as remaining stumbling blocks in the talks.
“These are a few of the issues that were discussed this weekend, but they are not exhaustive of our concerns. We are hoping to find common ground,” she wrote.
On Monday morning, Mark Meadows, the chief of staff for the White House, told reporters at the White House they had increased their offer to almost $1.9 trillion, about $300 billion short of the Democratic position.
“It’s been really the speaker that continues to be very rigid in her negotiation. It’s her way or the highway, it’s all or nothing,” Meadows said.
“I haven’t seen real movement on her part. All we’ve been doing is trying to provide additional areas of relief where we can compromise. “
Still, Chris Krueger, a strategist with Cowen Washington Research Group, said in a client note Monday he remained doubtful of a lame duck pact.
“Phase 4 in the Lame Duck is possible, but probably only likely if Trump wins…otherwise, waiting for President Biden in late January,” he wrote.
And even if Pelosi and Mnuchin come to an agreement, there is no guarantee it could pass the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the size of the deals the pair are bargaining over is too expensive for Republicans. He plans to offer two much smaller bills in the middle of the week for possible consideration.
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