Border wall, impeachment battle imperil budget progress

WASHINGTON (AP) — A bitter fight over funding for border fencing is imperiling Capitol Hill efforts to forge progress on more than $1.4 trillion worth of overdue spending bills, one of few areas in which divided government at Washington has been able to deliver results in Trump era.

Poisous political fallout from ongoing impeachment battle isn’t helping matters. While it appears likely that lawmakers will prevent a government shutdown next month with a government-wide stopgap spending bill, re has been little progress, if any, on tricky tre-offs needed to balance Democratic demands for social programs with President Donald Trump’s ballooning border wall demands.

Even an expected Senate vote on Thursday to pass a $209 billion bundle of four bipartisan spending bills isn’t regarded as much progress, especially since it will be followed by a Democratic filibuster of a massive Pentagon spending bill.

At issue are ncy appropriations bills that Congress passes each year to keep government running. A hard-won budget and debt deal this summer produced a top-line framework for 12 yearly spending bills, but filling in details is proving difficult.

Democrats say White House demands $5 billion for Trump’s long-sought U.S.-Mexico border wall have led GOP-controlled Senate to shortchange Democratic domestic priorities.

y say negotiations can’t begin in earnest until spending hikes permitted under July budget deal are allocated among 12 appropriations subcommittees more to ir liking. Trump is demanding a huge border funding increase that comes mostly at expense of a major health and education spending bill.

“I am t optimistic,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y. “I don’t see Senate taking action that would enable us to have an active negotiation with m. y haven’t set groundwork. And until y figure out (subcommittee allocations) — although we are having very nice conversations — I don’t see progress.”

Current stopgap spending authority expires v. 21 and ar measure will be needed to prevent a shutdown reprising last year’s 35-day partial shuttering of government. All sides want to avert a repeat shutdown, but it can’t be entirely ruled out because of dysfunction and bitterness engulfing Washington se days.

Staff discussions on a new stopgap continuing resolution, or CR in Capitol Hill shorthand, haven’t yielded agreement yet. Democrats, including Lowey, have floated idea of a stopgap CR into February, which would likely punt budget battle past any Senate impeachment trial.

Senate Majority Leer Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is pressing for a CR of shorter duration in hopes of wrapping up unfinished budget work by Christmas. McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., spoke by telephone on Monday, congressional aides said, in hopes of breaking logjam.

“I think that McConnell clearly wants to get this done before end of year, which is good news,” said . 2 House Democrat Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who also spoke with McConnell. “He doesn’t want it to go into next year, r do I.”

But progress was me at a follow-up staff session on Tuesday that included White House representatives. White House is playing a strong hand on border wall since it has begun employing its transfer authorities to shift billions of dollars of Pentagon funding toward wall construction — far more than it has obtained through regular funding process.

White House is demanding $5 billion in appropriations for wall this budget year — up from $1.4 billion — and it is also demanding to keep its powers to transfer Pentagon dollars as well — and to get Congress to refill Pentagon military base construction projects tapped last month to pay for up to $3.6 billion worth of border fencing.

“Completely unproductive,” reported a senior Democratic aide who requested anymity to describe closed-door session.

For ir part, Senate Democrats are refusing to allow $700 billion Pentagon bill to vance, protesting controversial wall funding gimmicks — and holding it back as lever to counter White House power moves. y filibustered measure last month and McConnell is forcing a re-vote as soon as Thursday.

“re is such animosity and bitterness and confrontation, it’s going to be really difficult to get agreement on anything,” said former Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky. “So I worry about wher or t we can even pass a CR.”