Congressional leaders this week are hoping to wrap up negotiations over a massive fiscal 2018 spending package that will fund all federal agencies. It's an effort being complicated by a push to include partisan
energy and environment policies.
House and Senate appropriators want to finish writing the 12 annual spending bills by Wednesday, then hand them off to party leaders in both chambers who will have to resolve any outstanding issues, including policy riders. They'll aim to settle those differences by the end of the weekend, with the bill due on the House and Senate floors next week.
Congress needs to pass the bill by no later than March 23, when current stopgap spending expires on the eve of a two-week congressional recess. If lawmakers cannot get the bill passed, they will have to clear another stopgap funding measure to keep agencies from shutting down.
"I'm not sure," Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), a senior appropriator, said last
week when asked about when the bill would surface. "But I think it will be before we go home for the break. Could it be next week? Possible, but it will probably be closer to when we go home for Easter break."
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) signaled late last week he expected an agreement to come quickly, saying it was even "possible" that the spending bill could be on the House floor by the end of
this week.
