Lawmakers in both parties Tuesday acknowledged the necessity of a short-term stopgap spending bill to allow appropriators time to work through final fiscal 2024 funding measures following this weekend’s topline deal.
Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., and House Appropriations Chairwoman Kay Granger, R-Texas, are currently negotiating joint subcommittee allocations with the goal of finalizing those by Friday, sources familiar with the talks say. Without those final numbers, appropriators can’t finish drafting the bills. And meanwhile lawmakers are facing a Jan. 19 deadline to pass funding for agencies covered by the Agriculture, Energy-Water, Military Construction-VA and Transportation-HUD measures. Without the full-year bills or at least a stopgap bill signed into law by then, those agencies’ funding would partially lapse. Read more