FY23 Budget Negotiations

On Tuesday, Speaker Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Schumer, House Minority Leader McCarthy, and Senate Minority Leader McConnell met with President Biden to discuss a way forward to complete action on the FY23 omnibus appropriations bill.  After the meeting, Sen. McConnell (R-KY) stated that there is “widespread agreement that we’d be better off with an omnibus than another continuing resolution (CR), but there are some significant hurdles to get over to do that, including not increasing funding for certain domestic priorities.”  Representative McCarthy suggested that if a deal cannot be struck by the end of this Congress, the new Republican controlled House will take up the issue. While this potential outcome would pose issues for the White House and Democrats, it could also be a problem for Republicans, as a shutdown threat in the initial few days of a new majority would be less than ideal.  Senate Appropriations Chair Leahy said there was "absolutely no reason" that an omnibus cannot be passed by December 16th, when the current CR expires, but Republicans are entering the talks with greater hesitation, acknowledging divisions within their caucus over whether a bipartisan omnibus deal is good policy as they seek to cut spending.  Per Senate Minority Leader McConnell, "if you were interested in reducing spending, probably the best way to do that would be a one-year CR. If, on the other hand, you're concerned about the defense of our country and the funding of the Ukraine war, you are somewhat hesitant to go in that direction.”