As government shutdown looms, Chuck Schumer girds for fight over spending

WASHINGTON — Amid the often-divisive partisan politics of Washington, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday touted an anomaly: The Senate now was taking up a dozen bills to fund the government that the Appropriations Committee had passed with broad bipartisan support.

That bipartisanship was evident Tuesday when the Senate voted 85-12 on a procedural measure to begin debate on three of the 12 appropriations bills, which the Appropriations Committee passed overwhelmingly, without a single "no" vote on seven of them.

Those votes put the Senate on a path for the first time in five years to debate, amend and approve appropriations under what's called regular order, instead of bundling everything into a massive omnibus bill.

Schumer, a New Yorker who often has acted a partisan Democrat during his more than four decades in Congress, highlighted that accomplishment to emphasize his pragmatic embrace of bipartisanship, at least for keeping the government open and funded through 2024.

“As we all know, government funding is set to expire on September 30th. By the end of this month, the House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans, all must get on the same page about keeping the government open and avoiding a pointless shutdown,” he said last week.

“To accomplish that,” Schumer added, “the answer is very simple: All sides must work together, in good faith, without engaging in extremist or all-or-nothing tactics.”

Yet he also took aim at House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and the hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus that is using its clout to try to cut back federal spending, root out liberal policies and defend former President Donald Trump.

Schumer contrasted Senate Republican cooperation with House Republicans who have passed appropriations bills without a single Democratic vote — and with the Freedom Caucus, which he said is bent on forcing a shutdown if it does not get its priorities passed.

“The idea is for both parties to work together,” Schumer said, “not one party, particularly a party governed by an extreme 30 or 40 members, filling out a wish list that they know can’t pass — can’t do that.”

Members of Congress will face the daunting task of passing a short-term extension of current spending to keep the government open past Sept. 30 as they weigh what level of appropriations and which programs to pass for 2024.

They also must respond to a White House request for supplemental spending of $40 billion — $24 billion for Ukraine, $12 billion for disaster relief and wildfire firefighter pay, and $4 billion for border enforcement, migration and fentanyl abuse. Some lawmakers propose to cut it back or break it up.

And the House will be proceeding under the shadow of an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden and a hearing on his son Hunter that McCarthy ordered on Tuesday.

As Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) recently put it: “It’s a mess."

Schumer's strategy

Schumer loves deal making, say those who know him well, and he will do what he needs to do to get it done.

Ten years ago, for example, Schumer agreed to add $30 billion to a massive immigration overhaul package to beef up the border — doubling the number of border agents to 40,000, completing a 700-mile fence and adding drones, sensors and other technologies — to win Republican support.

That legislation passed the Senate with a filibuster-proof 68 votes that included 14 Republicans. But House Republicans refused to take it up because they did not trust the Obama administration to implement the bill’s border measures, and it died.

Now, on the short-term spending, appropriations and supplemental bills, Schumer often acknowledges he has embraced bipartisanship because he must.

Senate Democrats have a one-vote majority and need nine Republicans to end a filibuster. And House Republicans can lose only four votes from their narrow majority without turning to Democrats for votes.

Schumer last week acknowledged his slim majority led him to make sure the process would be bipartisan — and that it would address senators' most pressing priorities to give them some buy-in on the process and final result.

The Senate Appropriations Committee, co-chaired by Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), also was able to complete its work because most senators from both parties agree with the 2024 spending level of about $1.59 trillion established in the debt limit deal and legislation enacted in June.

Schumer also has developed a pragmatic relationship with McConnell — and both back the hefty defense supplemental aid for Ukraine.

“Mitch and Chuck are really working well together,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who serves on the Budget and Finance committees.

Still, Schumer acknowledged, “None of this will be easy either. The bills will require a lot of work and compromise.”

G. William Hoagland, vice president of the nonprofit Bipartisan Policy Center and a former Republican Senate staffer on the budget and appropriations, assessed Schumer: “He's worked in a very positive manner here to maintain some form of civility and bipartisanship in the Senate.”

Eyes on Kevin McCarthy, House

The outcome of Senate-House skirmishing over these fiscal issues could depend more on what McCarthy decides he can do than on Schumer’s bipartisan schmoozing, experts said.

“The situation fundamentally turns on McCarthy’s choices more than on Schumer,” said Princeton University political science professor Frances Lee.

“Schumer to a great extent is at the mercy of what McCarthy is willing and able to do in the House,” she said.

That is because a large bloc of House Republicans voted against the debt limit legislation when it passed and the GOP House majority remains divided on it, depriving McCarthy of a working majority on fiscal matters and weakening his bargaining position, Lee said.

House Appropriations Committee Republicans began by setting an overall spending level of $1.47 trillion, nearly $120 billion less than the amount that McCarthy and President Joe Biden agreed to in the debt limit deal.

Most House Republicans say it is time to rein in the high levels of COVID-19 spending, which they blame for the rise in inflation.

But the House committee, experts said, has had a tough time passing spending bills and only Republicans have voted for those that have passed — after adding social riders such as blocking transsexual care and abortion; cutting funding for the Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Head Start and other programs; and adding expansions of gun rights.

Schumer has criticized those riders, and likely will try to strike them when appropriations legislation passed by each chamber goes to conference to resolve differences between the two versions.

McCarthy defended the lower level of spending and has urged his caucus to pass a short-term spending bill, known as a continuing resolution or CR, to allow more time to work on appropriations and avoid impeding a Biden impeachment probe with a federal government shutdown.

“I would actually like to have a short-term CR, only to make our arguments stronger,” McCarthy said on Fox Business News earlier this month.

“But if we're able to pass our appropriation bills, we're in a stronger position to remove those Pelosi policies that are locked into law right now, the wokeism, the overspending, the nonsecurity of this border,” McCarthy said, referring to Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), former House speaker.

Still, the push for a spending extension also could hit a speed bump.

Last month, the Freedom Caucus said it opposed any stopgap funding bill unless it addresses border security, the “weaponization” of the Justice Department and “woke” policies at the Pentagon. Democrats said they would not accept those conditions.

“He’s going to have a rough time implementing it, but I hope he sticks to his guns,” Schumer said of McCarthy’s attempts to pass a short-term spending deal in the House.

Hoagland predicted a tough standoff, with a federal government shutdown possible.

“I think this really comes down to almost a game of chicken between the Senate and the House,” he said.