The U.S. Capitol building seen on June 30, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Carlos Bongioanni/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — The threat of a partial government shutdown is looming over Congress this week as lawmakers race to pass a temporary spending bill that would keep Department of Veterans Affairs offices open.
A stopgap spending measure needs to pass the Senate and the House by Friday to maintain funding for veterans affairs, military construction and other federal agencies and programs without interruption.
The Senate on Tuesday night took the first step in advancing a bill to extend funding for the agencies through March 1 and aims to pass the legislation on Thursday. But the House has yet to take action.
The bill, announced by congressional leaders on Sunday, would also keep spending levels flat for the Defense Department through March 8 as lawmakers negotiate a $1.66 trillion bipartisan funding agreement for all agencies for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
Senate Majority Chuck Schumer warned Wednesday that chaos in the House, where hard-right conservatives have rebelled against spending measures that do not contain cuts or immigration reform, could derail the legislation.
Members of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of far-right Republicans, have said they would prefer a shutdown to a continuation of the spending priorities of the previous Democrat-led Congress, calling the stopgap bill a “surrender.”
“Only in the bizarre world of the hard right is it a surrender to keep the government open,” Schumer said. “Only in the twisted logic of MAGA extremism is it a disaster to extend funding so that VA offices remain open, food inspectors remain on the job, nutrition funding remains in place.”
The impact of a shutdown on the VA would be largely limited to several thousand employee furloughs and the shuttering of offices that provide career counseling and transition-assistance services, including the GI Bill hotline.
Medical centers would remain open and medical and benefits processing work would continue because Congress in 2022 approved advanced funding for them through the fall.
If a stopgap spending bill is not passed by Feb. 2, however, paychecks to troops would stop and Defense Department employees would be furloughed.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has faced pressure from far-right Republicans to renege on the temporary spending deal but said Wednesday that a stopgap measure was necessary to give Republicans more time to insert conservative priorities into final budget legislation.
“We’re not going to get everything that we want but we’re going to stick to our core conservative principles,” he said. “We’re going to advance fiscal stewardship. I regard this as a down payment on real reform.”
The spending fight ahead will involve the 2024 budget for the Pentagon and the VA as well as 10 other appropriations bills.
The House’s version of the defense spending bill contained measures considered nonstarters in the Senate, including provisions that would overturn the Pentagon’s abortion access policy for troops and slash Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s salary to $1.
An effort to insert the abortion access ban into the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act was ultimately rejected by lawmakers during bipartisan, bicameral negotiations. The legislation, which outlines policies for the Pentagon, was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden last month.
