Congressional leaders eye stopgap measure with hours before lapse in government funding

Congressional leaders said Friday afternoon that they are eyeing yet another short-term extension of government funding as lawmakers tried to resolve the remaining sticking points on a $900 billion coronavirus relief package.

Congress has until Friday at midnight to approve new legislation or appropriations funding the federal government would lapse on Saturday, triggering the beginning of a government shutdown. The impact of a weekend shutdown of the federal government would likely be minimal but could intensify should the impasse stretch into next week.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the No. 2 Senate Republican, told reporters Friday afternoon that expectations of a deal by the end of the day reflected “a triumph of hope over experience.” Congressional leaders entered a final push to close out negotiations and had informally agreed to try to resolve all disagreements by 5 p.m. Friday, although many aides on Capitol Hill dismissed this goal as highly unrealistic.

Thune said it would be “ideal” for lawmakers to try to pass a stopgap measure Friday night funding the government for a few days to give negotiators the weekend to sort out remaining disagreements. Thune appeared to acknowledge there may be resistance among some lawmakers to passing another short-term funding measure, saying: “People are anxious to get this done, but it’s arduous work.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., also told reporters on Friday afternoon he would support a short-term extension in government funding to buy negotiators more time, adding: “I’m not for a shutdown in any shape or form.” Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., also said: “We’re going to keep the government open.”

Lawmakers had hoped pressure from the looming shutdown would force a compromise on stimulus legislation but appeared to acknowledge Friday afternoon that a deal on the relief package was unlikely to be struck before the end of the day.

McCarthy and Hoyer added their opposition to an idea that was being talked about by lawmakers and congressional aides earlier in the day.

On Thursday, Thune had said, when asked about the possibility of another short-term extension of government funding: “I know people who are going to object to that, who want to keep pressure on the process until we get a deal.”

Lawmakers had hoped to introduce the relief legislation as early as Thursday but have been delayed by numerous contentious issues, particularly a push from Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., to curb the emergency lending authority of the Federal Reserve. They have also not settled how many weeks to fund unemployment benefits for, although aides had earlier said that jobless aid would be funded for 10 weeks under the emerging compromise.

Budget experts said the impact of a lapse would almost certainly be minimal if Congress can approve the government funding deal by the end of the weekend. The nation would face a much more significant disruption if the federal shutdown continued on Monday, when shutdown orders would go into effect.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Friday morning sounded upbeat about the status of negotiations and expressed optimism that a deal could get done. Lawmakers have also remained divided about whether to extend a federal eviction moratorium; eligibility criteria for small business relief; and the structure of unemployment benefits, among other provisions.

“The talks remain productive. In fact, I am even more optimistic now than I was last night that a bipartisan, bicameral framework for a major rescue package is very close at hand,” McConnell said. “The Senate will be right here until an agreement is passed, whenever that may be.”

The stimulus package under discussion would include $600 stimulus checks for millions of Americans, 10 weeks of jobless aid, $330 billion in small-business assistance, money for vaccine distribution, and funding for a range of other programs. It leaves out aid to cities and states as well as a liability shield for businesses looking for protection from lawsuits that Republicans had insisted on.

The impact of a short-term shutdown on public-facing services would likely be blunted by the coronavirus pandemic, which has kept many Americans indoors and closed or restricted the operations of operations like national parks. Also, a lapse in operations in the dead of winter would be less likely to have a big impact on visitation to parks and other federally-run tourists sites, compared to other shutdowns that have happened in warmer weather.

One obstacle to a quick extension of a budget funding bill is Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who told reporters Friday he will object to any stopgap unless he received assurance that direct payments to taxpayers will be included in the bill. That would likely not be a difficult task, however, because party leaders have agreed for days that stimulus checks of some sort will be included in a final package.

The size of those checks, however, remains a point of dispute. Hawley on Friday went on the Senate floor to push legislation that would provide for $1,200 checks — roughly double what is currently under consideration. Yet, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., argued that sending more direct aid to Americans would be a fiscally irresponsible “shotgun approach.”

“We will not have learned the lessons from our very hurried, very rushed, very massive earlier relief packages,” Johnson said on the Senate floor. “We’re just going to do more of the same.”

Hawley shot back that lawmakers need to get their priorities straight: “We’re getting ready to spend, apparently, another trillion dollars more and yet working people are told they may be last, if they get relief at all,” he said. “Working people are living in their cars, working people can’t go to the doctor, working people can’t pay their rent, working people can’t feed their children. They should be first … not last.”

Despite broad bipartisan agreement on a range of provisions in the relief package, lawmakers were racing Friday to resolve the lingering disagreements.

The Federal Reserve’s lending powers have emerged as a key sticking point in the deal. Several of the central bank’s emergency lending programs are set to expire at the end of the year, with hundreds of billions of dollars in unspent funds being redirected toward a stimulus package.

Republicans are also pushing for legislation that prevents the expiring emergency lending programs, or anything remotely similar to them, from being created in the future. Toomey has said even under the language he is pushing the Fed’s emergency lending powers “remain on the books” and that the door would still be open for Congress to approve entirely different programs “if in the future, some dire emergency occurs.”

That argument was denounced by Democrats, who say the plan slashes the Fed’s broader authority, and undermines the ability of the central bank and incoming Biden administration to fight future crises. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, on Twitter blasted the move as a last-minute intervention and “the reason we don’t have a deal.”

“These authorities should be maintained to allow for the Federal Reserve to act to prevent hardship to families across the country,” Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said in a statement. “If ever there is a time to put politics aside and do the right thing, it should be in the middle of a pandemic and corresponding economic crisis.”

Lawmakers are also arguing over how to structure unemployment benefits in the final plan. Republican negotiators are also seeking to include language that would gradually phase out the benefits over time, according to three people granted anonymity to share details of internal negotiations. Democratic lawmakers believe the measure is designed to avert a cliff in which unemployment benefits suddenly expire for millions, which would put pressure on Congress to pass an extension in benefits.