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Thursday 12 december 2019

House leaders racing the clock on

govt. spending bill

dam project that would This year’s annual appro- by Trump after last-minute
provide more water for priations cycle was sup- drama.
Central Valley farmers. posed to be relatively easy House Democrats sought
Nobody wants a govern- after this summer’s budget to block Trump’s power to
ment shutdown when a and debt deal reversed a transfer Pentagon funding
stopgap spending bill ex- sharp set of spending cuts to Trump’s project, but his
pires at the end of next that would have otherwise veto threats are likely to
week, but time is running struck both the Pentagon succeed in getting Demo-
out and it’s not at all cer- and domestic agencies. crats to drop the language
tain that negotiations can But a Senate GOP move to in the closed-door talks.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., accompanied by close in time for the Sen- more than triple a key bor- Negotiators on a separate
Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Richard ate to process a year-end der wall account to meet $738 billion Pentagon poli-
Neal, D-Mass., left, and other House members, speaks at a spending package. An- Trump’s demands sparked cy bill dumped companion
news conference to discuss the United States Mexico Canada
Agreement (USMCA) trade agreement, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019, other temporary funding a two-month stalemate. language in their House-
on Capitol Hill in Washington. bill, called a continuing Negotiations are back on Senate talks.
Associated Press resolution, or CR, could be track, with most of Trump’s But funding through trans-
needed to avert a repeat $5 billion wall demand be- ferring money from other
Continued from Front transfer authorities.” of last year’s 35-day partial ing returned to other do- accounts is subject to le-
As is often the case, Califor- federal shutdown. mestic accounts. gal challenges. A federal
“There simply is not time left nia rivals Pelosi and Kevin At issue is the almost one- It’s complicated, but judge in Texas on Tuesday
for my Democratic friends McCarthy are feuding, this third of the federal budget Trump has a significant tac- issued a nationwide injunc-
to continue haggling over time about a long-shot Mc- passed by Congress each tical advantage that al- tion to block Trump from
... poison pills, partisan pol- Carthy bid for additional year for day-to-day opera- lows him to obtain several using $3.6 billion in military
icy riders and presidential funding for a controversial tions of federal agencies. billion dollars for his border base construction funds to
project. That’s because pay for border fencing and
he will refuse to sign any other barriers.
bill that denies his wall re- Democrats griped that
quest outright or curtails his Republicans were slow to
powers to transfer money make concessions on more
from Pentagon accounts than 100 items that were
to border construction. in dispute, citing as an ex-
Another option is to keep ample House GOP leader
the Homeland Security De- McCarthy’s effort to win
partment budget largely additional money for a
frozen under a continuing long-stalled dam project
resolution while maintain- that’s opposed by environ-
ing those same transfer mentalists.
authorities that Trump has Republicans countered
used to shift almost $7 bil- that Democrats were slow
lion to wall accounts even to give up their pet priori-
as Congress directly appro- ties as well and that some
priates far less — $1.4 billion of their demands should be
for the 2019 budget year. deemed poison pills and
Nobody wants the third op- dropped automatically.
tion: a government shut- The delays have pushed
down battle. back deadlines. House ac-
The no-win spot that anti- tion on the spending pack-
wall forces find themselves age won’t occur until next
in promises to generate un- week, when impeachment
rest among some progres- and a major trade bill are
sives, though they may be also on the agenda. Lead-
reluctant to give leaders ers hope the Senate could
much blowback during the follow and complete ac-
height of impeachment. tion by the end of next
For their part, conservatives week, but any individual
usually just oppose the an- senator could mess up the
nual spending bills, which plan under the Senate’s
are then reluctantly signed rules.q