Release of Senate stopgap bill could slip as negotiations drag
Federal grant rule, other add-ons are points of contention
The timeline is slipping for senators to strike a bipartisan deal on a short-term funding patch before their August recess as leadership struggles to work out the finer details.
Senior appropriators had been hopeful of unveiling text before the weekend for a stopgap measure expected to keep the government funded into early December. But sources say leaders are now more likely to release text later this weekend or early next week amid snags over a federal grant rule and other add-ons.
The Trump administration’s proposed rule would give senior political appointees greater influence over the grant approval process and has drawn pushback from appropriators on both sides of the aisle.
Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, noted Thursday that the rule has drawn considerable criticism from “a wide range of groups.”
“So, I hope we’ll take advantage of this opportunity to delay it,” she said. “But that’s up to the leadership. It’s obviously not a funding issue.”
The grants dispute is among the last-minute hitches and “anomalies” that negotiators have said leadership is sorting through as senators aim for floor consideration next week.
The Senate is currently scheduled to take a procedural vote Monday on the legislative vehicle for the continuing resolution that is needed to stave off a partial government shutdown on Oct. 1, when the new fiscal year begins.
The House has already passed a Republican-crafted stopgap bill to extend current funding through Dec. 4. But senators say further “anomalies,” or deviations from current spending, are needed, noting the gap between add-ons requested by the White House and the House GOP’s bare-bones funding patch.
However, Democrats have already raised concerns over at least one anomaly, taking issue with a $1 billion ask by the White House to start procurement for a line of proposed Trump-class battleships.
Earlier this week, Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, a senior appropriator, described the proposal as “a new project” and “not something you pass in a CR.”
“Look, if I wanted a new billion-dollar thing, I would not be within my rights to demand it on a 60-day funding patch,” Schatz said.
House Democrats also expressed concerns about potentially transferring funding to immigration enforcement agencies. They overwhelmingly rejected the Republicans’ proposed stopgap measure because they argued it could allow for a new infusion of funding for the Border Patrol without any new restrictions on federal immigration agents.
Top Democratic appropriators in the Senate also said earlier this week that they were looking at a potential solution.
Paul M. Krawzak contributed to this report.




