(RepublicanWire.org) – While the incoming House Republican majority is urging Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to hold leverage on Democrats’ spending agenda before the new Congress, the leader is closing on a deal with Democrats anyway.
Instead of pushing a continuing resolution until after Republicans hold the House after Jan. 3, McConnell said a deal on a yearlong government funding bill are getting “close.”
Democrats said Tuesday they had been willing to pass legislation to keep the government operating past the end of the week and avoid a government shutdown — like was forced on then-President Donald Trump in the middle of his term.
“I think we’re very close to getting an omnibus appropriations bill,” McConnell told reporters after the Tuesday Republican Senate leaders’ lunch.
McConnell ruled out returning to Washington, D.C., to finish the omnibus after Christmas recess if it does not pass by Thursday, Dec. 22.
House Republicans say that McConnell, should only agree to help Democrats fund the government until mid-January. The timeline would give Republicans more leverage in budget negotiations since the party is set to control the House of Representatives.
“Republican voters fought hard to win back control of the House to take away insane spending control from the Democrats,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. “Mitch McConnell is on the verge of taking away House Republicans’ power of the purse next year by making a dirty deal with the Democrats.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene wasn’t alone. Others have urged McConnell to wait for the GOP to be in power, before passing government spending for the entire year.