With the House still away from Washington and a looming deadline to fund the government at the end of the month, the Senate returned this week ready to push ahead with a plan to set spending for the next fiscal year. 

What You Need To Know

  • Senate Appropriations Committee chair and ranking member Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, announced the chamber will move forward with a small package of three spending bills, dubbed a “minibus,” next week 
  • With current government funding set to expire on Sept. 30, Congressional leaders in both chambers have said a short-term stopgap funding measure  looks like Congress’ best bet at avoiding a shutdown 
  • Potentially complicating matters further, the White House earlier this month asked Congress to approve more than $40 billion in additional funding for disaster recovery, border enforcement and aid to Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion
  • Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pledged his support to continue aid to Ukraine, breaking from some House Republicans who have called for an end of such assistance from the U.S. 

On Wednesday, Senate Appropriations Committee chair and ranking member Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, announced the chamber will move forward with a small package of three spending bills, dubbed a “minibus,” next week. 

The minibus will include the 2024 fiscal year budget for the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs – all some of the least controversial bills in the spending process. 

But with current government funding set to expire on Sept. 30, passing a full spending plan for fiscal year 2024 before it starts in October looks unlikely. Congressional leaders in both chambers have said a short-term stopgap funding measure – known as a continuing resolution (or CR) – looks like Congress’ best bet at avoiding a shutdown. 

That would give lawmakers time to work out a larger agreement to fund the government for the year and the Biden administration formally asked Congress to pass such a measure last week. 

But a number of conservative House Republicans have pushed back on such a move, insisting that it be tied to a host of their priorities that are unlikely to gain support from the Democratic-controlled Senate and White House. 

Potentially complicating matters further, the White House earlier this month asked Congress to approve more than $40 billion in additional funding for disaster recovery, border enforcement and aid to Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion. 

The around $24 billion in funding the president is requesting for Ukraine could be a sticking point as some in the GOP have pushed back on additional financial aid for the war-torn country, arguing the U.S. should be using the cash for domestic issues. 

Although it ultimately didn’t pass, in July, 70 House Republicans voted in favor of an amendment to end security assistance to the country. 

Despite the pushback, the top Republican in the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY., is actively making the case to continue supporting Ukraine, arguing now is ”not the time to go wobbly,” on the Senate floor this week while acknowledging the rift in the party. 

“I think maintaining our support for Ukraine is extremely important,” McConnell told reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday. “I know there is a difference of opinion in my party on this.” 

He pledged his support again on the Senate floor on Thursday. 

"Standing with our allies against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is directly and measurably strengthening the U.S. military, growing the U.S. industrial base and supporting thousands of good-paying American jobs,” McConnell said. “The overwhelming majority of the money we have appropriated is being spent here in America.”

McConnell's impassioned call followed one from his Democratic counterpart, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

"The worst thing we can do right now for our own national security and for our democratic values is to waver or hesitate in our support,” the New York Democrat said on the Senate floor on Thursday. “What is the point in cutting off support now when we’re at a turning point in the war?”

A report from Punchbowl News indicated that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., may be considering leaving Ukraine funding out of a short-term government funding measure, which drew swift condemnation from the White House on Thursday.

"Lives are at stake across a wide range of urgent, bipartisan priorities for the American people that are addressed in President Biden’s supplemental funding request – a request that honors the funding commitments he and both parties in both chambers made to the American people," said White House spokesperson Andrew Bates in a statement.

"Like Senate Republicans, Speaker McCarthy should keep his word about government funding," Bates continued. "And he should do so in a way that acts on these pressing issues – including fentanyl, national security, and disaster response – rather than break his promise and cave to the most extreme members of his conference agitating for a baseless impeachment stunt and shutdown."

The requested funding is specifically to continue aid to the country in the first quarter of the 2024 fiscal year starting Oct. 1. 

When asked if the Biden administration is preparing another plan to be able to move forward with aid for the next three months if Congress doesn’t approve the request or if the government shuts down, White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said in an interview with Spectrum News that he expects support to continue and cannot get into speculation on a possible shutdown. 

”We're working closely with members of Congress and again, we're confident that we'll get there,” he said. 

Punchbowl News reported that White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan briefed Senate leadership on Thursday on the state of the war. Schumer said that briefing highlighted the importance of the U.S. continuing to give "significant aid" to Ukraine.

“The good news is, in that room ... there was unanimity on the need for more aid, and we’re going to figure out the best way to get it,” said Schumer. “If Putin thinks he can outlast us and win, it’s the view of many in that room that this won’t be the last time that he goes into a different country.”

Earlier this year, the deal McCarthy and Biden cut to suspend the nation’s debt limit and keep the U.S. from defaulting included agreements for the next fiscal year aimed at reining in spending to get GOP support. 

But it was not enough for some in the GOP’s right flank, who subsequently held up the House floor for days in protest. 

Soon after, Texas Rep. Kay Granger, the chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said House Republicans will mark up next fiscal year’s spending bills below the levels in the debt deal, arguing they are a ceiling, not a floor. 

The Senate has marked up its bills in line with the levels set by McCarthy and Biden, putting the two chambers at odds. 

“The only way to avoid a shutdown is through bipartisanship. So, I urge, I plead with House Republican leadership to follow the Senate’s lead and pass bipartisan – Democrat and Republican – appropriations bills, supported by both parties,” Leader Schumer said on the floor this week. 

Senate Republicans and Democrats are applauding themselves for the bipartisan nature in which their fiscal 2024 spending bills passed out of committee, noting this is the first time all 12 bills made it out individually in years. 

Before Congress left for the August break, the full House passed one of 12 spending bills and abandoned a plan to vote on a second. 

The Senate passed all 12 of its bills out of committee, but the full body has not yet voted on the legislation. If Senate leaders move ahead with the plan laid out this week, the minibus would be the first to be voted on by the full Senate.