Exclusive: The tumultuous two years of the 118th Congress are likely to end with another standoff over government spending.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) suggested on Fox News Digital that Republicans are unlikely to begin discussing 2025 federal funding in the new year.
But he renewed his vow to fight against House Republicans combining all 12 annual spending bills into one massive “omnibus” package, setting up a potential showdown with Senate Democrats.
“The ideal scenario would be to get an agreement for the remainder of the fiscal year,” Scalise said.
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House Majority Leader Steve Scalise has indicated that he wants Congress to sort out funding for fiscal year 2025 before President-elect Trump takes office so he can focus on the issues at hand. (Getty Images)
He noted that if Congress simply extended funding levels for fiscal year 2024, it would create constraints on national security.
“When you think about defense funding, it's expensive to have a short-term funding bill when you don't have the long-term procurement to buy the long-range defense systems that we need to compete with China,” Scalise said. Ta. “China does not operate on short-term spending bills, and neither should we.”
Before recessing in September, House Republicans and Senate Democrats voted to extend funding levels for fiscal year 2024 through a so-called continuing resolution (CR) to avoid a partial government shutdown at the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. Agreed.
This gave Congressional negotiators until Dec. 20 to fast-track a deal.
At the time, some supporters of President-elect Donald Trump called for CR to continue into the new year in hopes of a new Republican administration taking power, but Republican leaders and national security hawks opposed this. did.
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Mr. Scalise expressed concern that increased funding significantly above last year's levels could cause the United States to fall behind China in new military technology. Pictured is Chinese President Xi Jinping. (Xie Huanzhi/Xinhua News Agency, via Getty Images)
If Republicans win the House of Representatives as well as the Senate and White House, President Trump will have a say in how the Republican-controlled Congress handles spending next fall. Days after Tuesday's general election, many House races remain undecided.
Scalise also mentioned several other priorities that will dominate the early part of Trump's term, including the border crisis and extending tax cuts.
However, the gap between the two sides remains wide when it comes to this year's negotiations.
House Republicans have accused Senate Democrats of slowing the process by trying to get Republicans to swallow a year-end “omnibus” of overspending and little transparency without passing their own spending bill on the floor.
Democrats, meanwhile, have criticized House Republicans' spending bills, some of which passed in the House, as pushing for harsh cuts and conservative policies deemed “non-starters.”
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has not yet ruled out holding an omnibus this year. (Reuters/Cheney Orr)
“We need to have a lot of conversations with our members about the best approach,” Scalise said. “When we left, more than 70% of government funding bills had already passed the House of Representatives, but nothing had passed in the Senate.”
“We are trying to get agreement on individual bills. So the House has done our job…I hope that when we come back we can start to get agreement.”
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Fox News Digital asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York whether he was anticipating a general election at the end of this year, which he has spearheaded in the Senate almost every year as majority leader. Ta.
If a deal is not reached by Dec. 20, the government could face a partial government shutdown weeks before the new presidential administration takes office.
