WASHINGTON -- Democrats in Congress moved Wednesday in an attempt to avert a looming fiscal crisis, scheduling a House vote to raise the debt ceiling and preparing a separate spending bill to head off a government shutdown looming at midnight today.
The spending bill is needed to prevent a lapse in government funding when the fiscal year ends today. Republicans were expected to support the measure, which also includes emergency disaster aid, after Democrats removed a debt-limit increase that the GOP had refused to back.
The tight timeline leaves lawmakers with just hours to pass the spending legislation before funding lapses for key federal agencies and operations, an outcome that Democrats have pledged to avoid given the potential for dire consequences during the coronavirus pandemic. If they don't act, then a government shutdown commences on Friday.
Republicans say they share a desire to stave off a government shutdown, especially in the midst of a pandemic. But some GOP lawmakers raised concerns about the measure Wednesday, stalling its swift passage. Republicans have sought to secure money for Israel and its missile defense system, for example, and they also raised issues related to the process for vetting Afghan refugees coming to the U.S.
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"I'm hoping at least we can reach an agreement later today to move tomorrow," said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the party's chief vote counter, as he acknowledged the issues on the Republican side.
The Senate was expected to reach an agreement to allow the chamber to proceed, holding votes on amendments for those issues, according to an aide who requested anonymity to describe the plans because they weren't yet finalized. If that happened, then it would position the House to also take action to adopt the measure today, averting a shutdown.
"We can approve this measure quickly and send it to the House so it can reach the president's desk before funding expires midnight tomorrow," Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor Wednesday. "With so many critical issues to address, the last thing the American people need right now is a government shutdown."
The proposal essentially would sustain federal agencies' existing budgets until December 3. At that point, Congress would either have to adopt another short-term fix, known as a continuing resolution, or take more decisive action to approve a set of appropriations bills that could boost agencies' spending into 2022. No matter the course, the vote would only delay another fight between Democrats and Republicans at a moment of great acrimony over federal spending.
Even as members of Congress worked to stave off a government shutdown, the fate of the legislation to raise the statutory limit on federal borrowing, which is on track to be breached by Oct. 18 if Congress does not increase it, remained uncertain. House Democrats appear to have the votes to pass their bill, which would lift the cap until Dec. 16, 2022, but Senate Republicans have blocked efforts to advance such legislation in that chamber, where 60 votes are needed to move most measures.
The decision by Democratic leaders to schedule a separate vote to raise the borrowing limit came after Senate Republicans balked at doing so as part of the stopgap spending bill, effectively stopping both measures in their tracks. Some moderate and conservative lawmakers are cold to the idea of taking a politically difficult vote to endorse more federal debt on a bill that is all but certain to stall in the Senate amid Republican opposition.
"We have a responsibility to uphold, to lift up, the full faith and credit of the United States of America -- that's what we have to do," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters as she left a meeting with her top deputies. She pointed out that lawmakers had already voted to raise the debt limit, when the House passed the spending bill last week.
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Senate Republicans have argued that Democrats should use the fast-track reconciliation budget process to unilaterally address the debt ceiling. Democrats have repeatedly rejected that suggestion, arguing that it is too time-consuming and would risk driving the federal government into its first-ever default.
OTHER MEASURES
At the same time, Democratic leaders were working to unite their party behind two crucial priorities before a planned vote today on a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan. Progressive Democrats have threatened to oppose that bill until Congress acts on a proposed $3.5 trillion tax-and-spending plan. Without their backing, the infrastructure measure would likely lack the votes to pass.
With his government overhaul plans at stake, President Joe Biden appeared unable Wednesday night to strike a swift agreement with two wavering Democratic senators who are trying to trim the $3.5 trillion measure, which would collapse without their support.
With Republicans solidly opposed to the measure and with no Democratic votes to spare, Biden canceled a trip to Chicago that was to focus on covid-19 vaccinations so he could dig in for a full day of intense negotiations ahead of crucial votes.
The risks were clear, but so was the potential reward as Biden and his party reach for a giant legislative accomplishment -- promising a vast rewrite of the nation's balance sheet with an ever-slim majority in Congress. The idea is to essentially raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy and use that money to expand government health care, education and other programs -- an effort that would be felt in countless American lives.
Attention is focused on Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, both centrist Democrats. They share a concern that the overall size of Biden's plan is too big, but they have angered colleagues by not making any counterproposals public.
In a possibly ominous sign, Manchin sent out a statement late Wednesday that decried the broad spending as "fiscal insanity" and warned that it would not get his vote without adjustments. "I cannot -- and will not -- support trillions in spending or an all-or-nothing approach," he said.
Together, the two senators hold the keys to unlocking the stalemate over Biden's expansive vision, the heart of his campaign pledges. While neither has said no to a deal, they have yet to signal yes -- and they part ways on specifics, according to a person who is familiar with the private talks and was granted anonymity to discuss them.
Manchin appears to have fewer questions about the revenue side of the equation -- the higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy -- than about the spending plans and particular policies, especially those related to climate change that are important to his coal-centric state. He wants any expansion of aid programs to Americans to be based on income needs, not simply for everyone.
Though Sinema is less publicly open in her views, she focuses her questions on the menu of tax options, including the increased corporate rate that some in the business community argue could make the U.S. less competitive overseas and the individual rate that others warn could snare small-business owners.
With Democrats' campaign promises on the line, the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said of Manchin: "He needs to either give us an offer or this whole thing is not going to happen."
Pelosi suggested she might postpone today's vote on the $1 trillion public works measure that Manchin, Sinema and other centrists want but that progressives are threatening to defeat unless there's movement on the broader package.
Today's vote has been seen as a pressure point on the senators and other centrist lawmakers to strike an agreement with Biden. But with Manchin and Sinema dug in, that seemed unlikely.
The president is highly engaged, meeting separately with Manchin and Sinema at the White House this week and talking by phone with lawmakers shaping the package. Democrats are poised to trim the measure's tax proposals and spending goals to reach an overall size Manchin and Sinema are demanding.
"I think it's pretty clear we're in the middle of a negotiation and that everybody's going to have to give a little," said White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
Biden's problems with fellow Democrats aren't just in the Senate. A small number of centrist House Democrats also are bristling at the far-reaching scope of his domestic agenda, which would expand health care, education and climate change programs, all paid for by the higher tax rates.
Progressive lawmakers warn against cutting too much, saying they have already compromised enough, and they threaten to withhold support for the public works measure that they say is too meager without the bigger package being assured.
But centrists warned off a cancellation of today's vote as a "breach of trust that would slow the momentum in moving forward in delivering the Biden agenda," said Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., a leader of the centrist Blue Dog Democrats.
Republicans are opposed to Biden's bigger vision, deriding the $3.5 trillion package as a slide toward socialism and government intrusion on Americans lives.
INFRASTRUCTURE BILL
Meanwhile, business groups and even some Senate Republicans -- working at cross-purposes with Republican leaders in the House -- have mounted an all-out drive to secure GOP votes for the bipartisan infrastructure bill before the vote today.
Although the measure is the product of a compromise among moderates in both parties, House Republican leaders are leaning on their members to reject the $1 trillion bill by disparaging its contents and arguing that it will only pave the way for Democrats to push through their far larger climate change and social policy bill.
Their opposition has ratcheted up pressure on Pelosi, who has the more progressive members of her Democratic caucus threatening to withhold their support for the infrastructure package until Congress acts on that broader bill.
But some Republican senators who helped write the infrastructure bill, along with influential business groups that support it -- including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable -- have started a countereffort to try to persuade House Republicans to back the legislation.
"It's a good bill; it's right there for the country, so I'm encouraging Republicans to support it," said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, one of the bill's negotiators, who said he was working the phones hard. "There'll be some that have told me they will, but they're under a lot of pressure."
Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., who runs his party's vote-pressuring operation in the House, is closely tracking which Republicans intend to vote for the infrastructure bill.
"We're working to keep that number as low as we possibly can," he said.
If Republicans unite in opposition, then Pelosi can afford to lose few Democrats on the bill.
A few House Republicans who are members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus have announced their support for the measure, including Reps. Tom Reed of New York, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Don Bacon of Nebraska. On Monday, Rep. Don Young of Alaska, the longest-serving member of the House, announced his support.
But so far, such declarations are few. On Wednesday, Third Way, a centrist Democratic group with corporate backing, released a testy letter that its president had written to 26 Republican "Problem Solvers" -- only one of whom, Bacon, has indicated he is a "yes" vote -- demanding they live up to their name.
"You have run for office and raised campaign funds on the promise that you are there to solve the nation's problems and put country over party," wrote Third Way's president, Jonathan Cowan. "Anything other than declaring your support now and voting for the bill, in turn, would signal clearly to your constituents that you support nothing more than faux bipartisanship."
Rep. Peter Meijer, a freshman Republican from Michigan and one of the "Problem Solvers" who received the letter, said he had heard from Republicans on both sides of the issue and that "the consensus is: better both fail."
Moderate Democrats say other supporters may surface -- maybe as many as 20 Republican votes -- if Pelosi can win over enough liberals to keep it close. But with today's vote looming, time is running out.
Information for this article was contributed by Emily Cochrane and Jonathan Weisman of The New York Times; by Lisa Mascaro, Alan Fram, Zeke Miller, Mary Clare Jalonick, Kevin Freking, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Darlene Superville of The Associated Press; and by Tony Romm of The Washington Post.