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Congressional leaders should be ready to go home for the holidays. Instead, they are staring at another government funding deadline and scrambling to make it. The deal coming together could have much larger implications, but lawmakers have not yet released the full text of an agreement. Lisa Desjardins reports.
Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.
Geoff Bennett:
Shifting our focus now to Capitol Hill, congressional leaders should be ready to go home for the holidays. But they are staring at yet another government funding deadline and scrambling to make it.
The deal coming together could have much larger implications, but lawmakers have not yet released the full text of an agreement. That’s despite Speaker Mike Johnson’s assurances earlier today.
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA):
We’re going to take care of these obligations and get this done, and then we’re going to go to work in unified government in the 119th Congress that begins in January.
Geoff Bennett:
Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins is checking her sources as we speak, but joins us now.
(Laughter)
Geoff Bennett:
Lisa, I’m starting to think that Yogi Berra was talking about Congress and not baseball when he said this is deja vu all over again.
What — bring us up to speed.
Lisa Desjardins:
I am.
I’m checking to see if we have the text of this bill yet, and we do not. The deadline is Friday, as our viewers know. And let me just first make a plea to our viewers. I knew you want to change the channel probably right now. People do not like dealing with this again and again, but it really is worth understanding what’s happening in this moment.
I’m going to say some of it is the same, but there’s two reasons that this is different. One is what we expect to be in this particular short-term funding bill. It’s not just that. So let’s talk about a couple of things that are in the bill.
First of all, it would extend government funding to mid-March, so that means we are going to be back here again in March. Now there’s really $100 hundred for disasters, and that includes hurricane damage that we saw obliterated many parts of the south and southeast. This is something new. There will be $10 billion in direct aid to farmers.
Part of that has to deal with drought. And also this would allow year-round ethanol sales. We know that that is a powerful force, and some in the middle of the country particularly have wanted it. Now, the second reason this is important, critical test for Speaker Mike Johnson.
And so far he is happy and on very hard time getting this across the finish line. Many of his Republicans don’t like that it is this late. They haven’t seen the bill. They don’t like that there are not pay-fors for it. And there is a large group of Republicans that simply are not happy. Here’s one of them.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC):
I like Mike. I’m frustrated with the outcome. I’m frustrated with what we get. The American people didn’t bargain for this. And they will not understand this. We’re evidently going to take a 1,800-page document that we really hadn’t read and going to pass it, add more debt. Very frustrating. It’s opposite of what the DOGE commission is trying to do.
So am I voting for it? No.
Lisa Desjardins:
Now, Ralph Norman’s important for a few reasons. He sits on the Rules Committee, which is the gateway to bills. And right now, Speaker Johnson doesn’t have the votes to bring this up under a normal rule because of Norman and others.
But, in addition, Norman is someone who has opposed potential speaker candidates in the past. And there is a rising question about whether this will hurt Speaker Johnson, who needs to be reelected in January.
One more thing about this. There’s not just a spectrum of financial issues here, but there’s other things in this bill that we should pay attention to that are making some Republicans mad. Others like it. One, the Washington Commanders will be able to build a stadium in Washington, D.C.
The Baltimore Bridge collapse, there’s money in there to help the federal government and Baltimore recoup costs for that. And, also, we’re watching prescription drugs. This is something that affects a lot of Americans. There is the potential. There is some reform in this bill, but we are waiting for the language to understand it.
Geoff Bennett:
So, Speaker Johnson will likely need Democratic votes for this funding bill to pass. When Congressman Norman says we’re going to pass this 1,800-page bill that no one’s going to have time to read…
Lisa Desjardins:
Right. Right.
Geoff Bennett:
… Speaker Johnson put a rule in place that members would have three days to read bills like this, but it’s now Tuesday. Are they going to have three days to potentially read this thing before they vote on it and keep the government funded?
Lisa Desjardins:
This is one of the reasons that Americans have problems with Congress, is they do things like this.
We don’t know. Because the deadline is Friday, they need to have the text moving tonight in order to make that deadline. It doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen. So Speaker Johnson right now has only bad choices because of the way he’s done this with his conference.
So if they move it tonight, maybe, but right now it looks like it’s moving too slowly. He may have to break that rule in order to get this across the finish line. We may also have to have weekend votes, which sort of is like a wink and nod that a shutdown sort of happened, but not really.
Geoff Bennett:
I want to ask you about some internal Democratic Party politics, namely that New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez today lost her bid to become the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.
And this is at a time when Democrats — there’s an appetite for some fresh faces, especially in Congress, leading some of these committees. Bring us up to speed.
Lisa Desjardins:
That was a big part of her pitch. She is now going to be a fourth-term congresswoman. She’s not new to the Hill anymore, Ocasio-Cortez. Let’s talk about that race, first of all.
She pitched that new generation. She said, I’m one of the top fund-raisers. Seniority is not — should not just be the way that people gain traction here. It should be the people who are the strongest and able to voice things for the working class.
But she lost to Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Congressman, who, among other things, has important ties to Washington, D.C., which is part of the Oversight Committee’s job. But there was a vote for one newer person. That’s Angie Craig, who will be heading the Agriculture Committee, despite Nancy Pelosi endorsing someone else.
Geoff Bennett:
All right, Lisa Desjardins, thanks, as always.
Lisa Desjardins:
You’re welcome.
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Lisa Desjardins Lisa Desjardins
Lisa Desjardins is a correspondent for PBS News Hour, where she covers news from the U.S. Capitol while also traveling across the country to report on how decisions in Washington affect people where they live and work.
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