Congress Likely to Vote on Stopgap 2014 Funding Measure

With only one week left until the Jan. 15 deadline for passing a $1 trillion omnibus spending package — or face another government shutdown — it appears likely that an interim spending bill will be passed that buys House and Senate negotiators time to complete their appropriations work, The Hill reports.

Lawmakers and staffers are working on the 12-part omnibus bill that fleshes out the nitty-gritty details of day-to-day domestic and foreign federal spending. Every expenditure needs to be individually appropriated line-by-line.

Republicans are resisting 2014 funding for the Affordable Care Act and the Dodd-Frank Act, which tightens governmental regulation of banking and finance.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., sounded cautiously optimistic that a deal would be closed.

"An omnibus is big. It's over $1 trillion. It's over 134 riders. You have two houses, you have parties within the parties, this is really complicated . . . This is not a linear process, it's more like an amoeba," Mikulski said, according to the Hill.

Rogers said, "I think we're making really good progress. I'm optimistic," noting that "roughly" six of the 12-part bill is done.

The stopgap measure would provide time beyond Jan. 15 to work out remaining differences.

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