Congress’ New Year’s Resolution: Finishing What It Started

Congress faces a new year with the same old problems.

When lawmakers return to Washington next week, they’ll have to finish what they started last year.

“The aversion to some about end-of-year packages have now made those end-of-year packages beginning-of-year packages, when the politics is worse across America, when the timeline is more constrained,” Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., told reporters before the House ended its first legislative session of the 118th Congress.

Lawmakers left for the holidays without agreeing on topline spending numbers for government funding bills ahead of Jan. 19 and Feb. 2 deadlines. They also punted a $100 billion-plus emergency national security package with critical aid to Ukraine and Israel as well as money for the Indo-Pacific and humanitarian efforts in Gaza with a bipartisan deal on immigration reform and border security. 

The House and Senate will have less than two legislative weeks before the first set of funding deadlines hits. The Republican-led House has passed seven partisan spending bills — some without a single Democratic vote, while others garnered support from one, two or as many as four Democrats.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has promised that House Republicans will not take up another short-term funding extension and that if Congress needs to rely on another continuing resolution it would run through the end of the fiscal year, which would trigger an automatic 1% across-the-board spending cut.

The Senate Appropriations Committee passed all 12 spending bills out of committee with bipartisan support, but only three cleared the entire Democratic-led chamber.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., an appropriator, said he believes lawmakers would need at least 30 days to tackle spending issues in the new year.

“We could do it in less, but it would require people to work nights and weekends, which I’m willing to do, but that never seems to happen around this place,” Kennedy said.

He predicted Congress will either have to pass an omnibus, a massive bill that encompasses all 12 spending bills, or a continuing resolution, which would continue funding the government at current levels.

“If I were betting between the omnibus and the CR, I would bet on the CR right now,” Kennedy told reporters in a mid-December interview. “Now that doesn’t mean that’s what I prefer, but if you ask me the odds, I would say if it comes down to omnibus or CR, CR wins.”

McHenry, who served as interim speaker during the three weeks House Republicans remained politically paralyzed while attending to the leadership battle royale sparked by the historic ouster of Kevin McCarthy, said the two fast-approaching government funding deadlines is “where the deal-making could occur” in terms of knocking out languishing priorities.

After that, the must-pass pressure naturally dies down.

“Once we get through the omni, it’s going to be a much better political environment,” the retiring 10-term lawmaker predicted.

The House will also continue investigating President Joe Biden and his family’s business dealings as the Republican Conference moves ever closer to impeaching the president in an election year. House Republicans believe they have the votes to hold the president’s son, Hunter Biden, in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena for testimony last month.

Back in the Senate, leadership left the first session of the 118th Congress expressing “hope” that the chamber will “take swift action” on a national security package early this year coupling aid for Israel and Ukraine with U.S. border security upgrades.

Senate Democrats blocked a House-passed bill with funds for Israel that were offset by IRS cuts, and Senate Republicans later blocked a national security package that didn’t include any border policy concessions. They also rejected Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s offer to get a vote under a 60-vote threshold on any border amendment they wanted if they helped advance the package.

Schumer, D-N.Y., delayed the chamber’s holiday recess by nearly a week, hoping it would give negotiators from the Senate and White House enough time to reach an agreement on policy changes to stem the flow of migration at the southern border. Despite around-the-clock efforts to clinch a deal and no shortage of daily reports of “progress,” a bipartisan agreement has remained elusive.

Senators from both parties are back at the negotiating table this week trying to resolve differences on a number of sticking points, including those surrounding asylum, even as House Republicans have dug in on the thorny election-year topic. Several dozen House GOP lawmakers are headlining an event along the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas on Wednesday to showcase their top political priority to halt illegal migration.

In a joint statement the night before the Senate’s final day of session in 2023, Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., framed border security talks as “essential” to the chamber’s efforts to tackle national security priorities across the globe.

“Our colleagues are making encouraging progress on this front,” the leaders said, noting that “[c]hallenging issues remain.” “The Senate will not let these national security challenges go unanswered. As negotiators work through remaining issues, it is our hope that their efforts will allow the Senate to take swift action on the national security supplemental early in the new year.” 

Warren Rojas contributed reporting.