Congress will likely pass a short-term spending bill to extend government funding through March to prevent a shutdown, but GOP senators still have misgivings.
"Why start off the new administration fighting a battle of the previous year?" one Senate Republican committee chairman told The Hill, who requested anonymity.
"All things being equal, I'd prefer an omnibus, because it gives you flexibility to change program funding," he said, adding that he did not prefer a catchall funding bill that raises spending caps or includes progressive policy riders.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is one of the most vocal critics of the plan, calling congressional leaders "idiots" for going ahead with the plan.
A top GOP aide confirmed to The Hill that there is disagreement among the party, but that pushing the spending bill to next year would give president-elect Donald Trump an "imprint" on talks.
According to a Senate aide, Republicans are telling the Appropriations Committee to start working on a stopgap to fund the government until Spring.
"I would encourage colleagues on both sides to continue working together so that we can complete our work soon," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on the floor Monday, according to Roll Call.
"We would like to finish funding the government this year. Exactly how to achieve that over a three-week period is always a matter for discussion. How to package it, differences in the House versus the Senate," McConnell told reporters a day after the election, CBS News reports.
"But I would like to wrap up the business of funding the government in this fiscal year, this calendar year."
In 2014, McConnell worked with Democrats and passed a $1.1 trillion spending bill, allowing Republicans to focus on their own priorities once they took control of the Senate.
Some Senate Republicans worry that the spending issue will continue until March, distracting them from other issues, but others would rather wait until President Barack Obama is out of office.
"The new, incoming government would like to have a say-so in how spending is allocated," House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters recently.
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