Senators brace for another government shutdown after spending talks stall

Senate Republicans and some Democrats fear another government shutdown is looming this fall after bipartisan spending talks sputtered this week, forcing Republicans to cancel the markup of four appropriations bills scheduled for Thursday.

Republicans think Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is angling for another showdown over government funding right before the midterm election, just as he and other Democrats forced a big fight last year over the expiration of enhanced health insurance subsidies.

“I think my Democratic friends at the direction of Sen. Schumer are not going to agree to a top-line [spending number] and they’re not going to agree to vote for any appropriations bill, and Sen. Schumer is going to shut down government,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

That concern has grown on Capitol Hill after negotiations between Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the top Democrat on the Appropriations panel, stalled.

Collins canceled a markup of four bills on Thursday, as Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is absent this week because of a health issue and she couldn’t count on Democratic votes to pass the bills out of her committee.

It’s a jarring difference compared with last year, when the Senate Appropriations Committee approved many of its annual spending bills with strong bipartisan support.

But with the midterm election only a few months away, the atmosphere in Congress has changed dramatically.

“Last year was not an election year,” Kennedy noted.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), the chair of the Senate Republican Policy Committee and a senior member of the Appropriations panel, said, “Democrats want to shut us down.”

“Hopefully we can solve the problem,” she said. “There’s no support on the other side.”

Democrats say another shutdown is possible, but they assert it would be Republicans’ fault........

© The Hill