Bipartisan funding negotiations begin in Congress ahead of March shutdown cliff

Republican funding leaders have made an opening offer to Democrats as the two parties launch negotiations toward a deal to fund the government before the mid-March shutdown deadline.

Congress’ top appropriators gathered privately Thursday evening in the Capitol for an hour-long “four corners” meeting — the first concrete step toward a bipartisan funding agreement as Republican leaders begin to embrace the idea of a cross-party accord that funds the government and raises the debt limit, while also potentially boosting disaster aid and border security funding. The beginning of negotiations follows months of inaction on a bipartisan government funding plan, after lawmakers first punted beyond the October start of the fiscal year and then again resorted to a stopgap measure in December, pushing the spending cliff into the first months of the new Trump administration.

Leaving the meeting, the House’s top Democratic appropriator, Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, said the four lawmakers hope to strike a “topline” agreement by month’s end — just over a week away — to set overall totals for the military and non-defense programs, as well as rules for policy add-ons. That expedited timeline comes as government funding runs out on March 14 and it usually takes at least a month for lawmakers to close out negotiations on the dozen appropriations bills once an overarching agreement is struck.

“Everybody wants to get the job done,” DeLauro said in an interview leaving the meeting, describing the bipartisan talks as “honestly, very positive.”

Even if the four negotiators can strike a deal on overall funding totals — and get the blessing of their party leaders — top lawmakers will still need to come to agreement on other issues, including whether to lift the debt limit within a final funding package. As the U.S. government risks defaulting on its more than $36 trillion in debt this year, Republican leaders are talking about seeking an agreement with Democrats to waive or raise the borrowing cap.

“That’s not our decision,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said Thursday about whether a debt limit increase gets added to a final funding package. “Not my decision to make.”

House and Senate GOP leaders and President Donald Trump will be the main deciders on that question.

Entering the meeting, Cole said he’s a “big fan” of DeLauro and his other two counterparts in the negotiation, Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) and the Senate’s top Democratic appropriator, Washington Sen. Patty Murray.

“So it’s a good personal chemistry, good people to work with,” Cole said.

Leaving the confab, Murray was brief but upbeat. “All I’m going to say is, it was a good discussion, and we’re working on it,” she said.

Collins told reporters earlier Thursday that she hopes to be able to release some funding totals by Monday.

The meeting follows a huddle between Cole and Collins on Wednesday night, where the Republican spending chairs met on their own to discuss potential funding levels before including Democrats in Thursday’s meeting.

Jordain Carney contributed to this report.

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