Omnibus Wrangling in Full Swing

Lawmakers consider a sweeping year-end funding package.

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Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy wants Congress to delay passing a government funding package until Republicans control the chamber in January and have more leverage to enact their priorities. But some of McCarthy’s GOP colleagues in the Senate openly question his ability to manage a high-stakes spending negotiation with such a tight majority.

Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker said this week that it’s “better not to have that major hurdle that the new speaker, Kevin McCarthy, has to negotiate.”

“It’s too much to ask,” he told reporters.

And Sen. Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the appropriations panel, brushed off McCarthy’s opposition as politically motivated: “He’s running for speaker. He’s supposed to say that.”

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  1. Repritchett92

    Thank you for the update on the Afghan Adjustment Act!

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  2. Braddnetflix

    Thank you for real reporting Haley. And thank you Dispatch for having a real reporting set up. News we can trust.

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    Dave Conant - MO

    As a couple of other commenters have noted, it's time to stop the performative BS and actually be about the country's business. Lumps of coal in the stocking are too good for these clowns, they should get no stocking at all.

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    1. DTruitt

      It's called republican democracy - we elect representatives to do the government's work, and they're doing it, and it is not clown's work - it's all very serious stuff with extremely serious consequences.

      People like you treat this process with contempt, but this is precisely how our Founders intended the Federal government to operate - via negotiation and compromise.

      McCarthy's position is obvious - he leads the House in the next year and would prefer that the House lead the way. McConnell's position is also obvious - he wants a quicker resolution of spending to avoid a longer more drawn out continuous resolution. If the Dems in the House can get their act together before the new year, they can lead the way. And if they can't, then the Pubs will lead the way.

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    Kurt

    ACTUAL NEWS, absent any reference to Donald Chump or ElonTwit. Refreshing and wonderful!

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    Earl King

    Is extending the debt ceiling in this omnibus bill? Whose gonna tackle that?

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  6. Apasquini68

    Nothing exemplifies how broken our system is more than budget negotiations. It all started when we stopped passing individual department budgets and went to omnibus bills and continuing resolutions.
    The people, through their representatives, have no say. The people don’t even get to see what’s being negotiated or voted on.
    And, to top it all of, no one is accountable.
    The only people that can fix this are the ones actually causing the problem.
    That leaves it to the citizens to force this to stop. It’s time to use the only mechanism we have and have our states pass a constitutional amendment to force Congress to return to normal departmental budgets, ban continuing resolutions, ban pork, and ban budget amendments that have nothing to do with the bill.
    I know Jonah disagrees with me, but none of these negotiations should be secret. In fact, all government actions should be streamed live (except for classified matters). We should see how the sausage is made. We should see the difference between compromise and abandoning principles. We should have all the info we need to draw opinions without the media warping it and the info we need to hold politicians truly accountable.
    Anything less is a betrayal of our system.

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    1. Cetompkins3

      An idealistic recommendation, I fear. Live streaming everything would only provide further opportunities for our legislators to play to the cameras and rile up the more extreme elements of their parties. Most of the detailed work of Congress is fairly boring stuff done by the professional staff and doesn’t lend itself to live streaming. CSpan is a great civic idea but has never attracted much viewership and I’m afraid “C-Span on steroids” wouldn’t fare much better. I agree that the only ones who can fix the problem are the ones who caused it. But, we won’t.

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  7. Cetompkins3

    Time for the electorate to insist that the Congress return to the regular order, I.e., pass individual appropriations, rather than a Brobdingnagian omnibus appropriation. It would provide some accountability, perhaps.

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    1. Harry

      In my limited understanding and memory, I think it was the TEA Party that was successful in the removal of ear marks. Sounded good but destroyed conversation and compromise. The result was continuing resolutions which grow at a fixed percentage each time they are passed. And, of course, contributed to the polarization we see now.

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      1. Cetompkins3

        Regardless of who started the abominations, we now have the worst of both worlds: a large number of “earmarks” and Omnibus appropriation bill. Regrettably, my original recommendation that the electorate insist on returning to regular order in appropriations is unlikely to occur because the vast majority of the electorate has no idea how the appropriations or legislative processes are supposed to work (and is not in the least concerned by its ignorance).

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    Ms. SSM

    Seems like McConnell doesn’t trust a GOP house to accomplish his priorities. That’s somewhat ironic.

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    1. DTruitt

      It's not a matter of trust, it is a matter of expediency. Despite all the blather to the contrary, the vast majority of Republicans in the House are in favor of continued financial and military aid to Ukraine. But in a House that is very closely divided, coming to a resolution quickly is likely not on the table once Republicans are in charge.

      The real issue here is that so far the Dems have not been able to get their act together to do this - they're in charge of both Houses of Congress and the White House - the bitching and complaining about non-performance should be directed at them and not at a House of Representatives that has not even been sworn in yet.

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        Ms. SSM

        Whose complaining here? I wasn’t the one doing the complaining. Kevin McCarthy was to Mitch McConnell. And KM is the one who wants the delay. The current Congress is fine getting it done now. It’s just interesting that McConnell is also fine with no delay. Because as you said he doesn’t trust the house to come to an agreement he would like (namely Ukraine aid). I find that an interesting assessment on MM’s part. He’s almost certainly right to do it now.


        And a note on the house so closely divided. Is it? It’s exactly as divided as it was in 2020 just flipped Dem to Rep. Bills still passed. Speakers were still elected promptly. This close divide in the chamber isn’t a new thing. It isn’t even any worse than the last spread. But some how paralysis is simply expected by everyone as normal. I find the lowered standard interesting. Thete seems to be such concern that the Republicans can not accomplish anything or even elect a Speaker with the exact same margin Pelosi worked with all year. It’s like we are grading the House GOP on a curve. The whole dynamic on the topic sums up I think the modern GOP problem. Many including many in their own party don’t trust them to actually govern.

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    2. Cetompkins3

      Really, it’s the way the legislative process is supposed to work (as I’m sure Mr McConnell knows). The House and the Senate were designed to represent very different constituencies. While we’ve removed some of the insulation the Framers put around the Senste, it still doesn’t respond to political trends quite as violently as the House.

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        Ms. SSM

        Sure but at the end of the day MM is saying he trusts a Dem house over a GOP house to get what he wants in this bill through. If you think that’s a good I won’t argue with you. I trust a Dem house more too! But I don’t think it’s some sign of the greatness of our legislative power. It’s a sign no one trusts the I coming House GOP including other people in the GOP.

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        1. Cetompkins3

          I think where we differ is on the word “trust.” I trust only that the House will respond differently than the Senate, as the Framers intended. That both houses are held by the same party doesn’t control this dynamic. So, I would advance that Mr McConnell trusts the House to be …the House. And, of course, the President responds to yet another political dynamic.

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    Sheila M

    I wish there were an article like button because I really appreciate the information in Uphill. You cut through all the noise and let me know what is actually happening. Thanks, Haley!

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      Marty

      Same here.

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      Haley Byrd Wilt

      Thank you for reading!

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