Federal Government Policy and Business

Democrats Poised to Block Latest GOP Plan to Avoid Shutdown

Government Executive: Democrats have rejected a Republican plan to fully fund the Defense Department for the remainder of fiscal 2018 while continuing stopgap appropriations into January for the rest of government, setting back negotiations to avoid a shutdown just before Christmas.

House Republicans had pushed the proposal for a joint continuing resolution-Defense omnibus to boost spending at the Pentagon as lawmakers negotiated revised spending caps for domestic federal agencies, but Senate Democrats have effectively killed that option before it got off the ground. Nearly all of the caucus wrote a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., telling them the idea was a non-starter.

The Democrats said such a measure would neglect domestic priorities such as homeland security, veterans and agriculture. They instead encouraged Republicans to continue to engage in bipartisan talks.

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