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.
Among the agreements in place is the $858 billion National Defense Authorization Act, which the House passed last week and will be a part of the Senate's deal.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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