The Senate quietly closed out its yr on Wednesday by punting a lot of its most tough points into 2024. It did not ship on assist to Ukraine. It couldn’t agree on a border coverage plan. And a authorities shutdown is on the horizon.
The fizzle on the end line ensures that Congress can be ensnarled in coverage and financial battles as lawmakers battle for management of the Home and the Senate in November’s elections.
The chief disappointment for leaders of each events was the failure to agree on delivering extra navy assist to Ukraine in its battle with Russia after the help received tied up in Republican calls for for stringent new border controls.
It was a setback for Democrats, who had hoped that by retaining the Senate in Washington this week, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the bulk chief, may pressure votes on a measure dashing tens of billions to Ukraine and addressing Republicans’ push for immigration coverage adjustments. However a breakthrough didn’t materialize.
Mr. Schumer, in an interview, mentioned he remained hopeful that an settlement can be prepared for a fast vote when the Senate returns subsequent month. He cited higher participation within the talks by the Biden administration and a recognition by Republicans that Democrats are keen to make severe concessions to stem the circulation throughout the southern border.
“I feel the Republicans have seen that we’re severe concerning the border, and that we’re keen to do some issues that perhaps they thought we wouldn’t do,” he mentioned.
Mr. Schumer mentioned the foremost query for Republicans was whether or not opposition from Donald J. Trump, the G.O.P.’s presidential front-runner, would deter them from hanging a deal, although most Republicans acknowledged that serving to Ukraine was the most effective method to confronting Russia and avoiding a wider battle.
“They’ve the looming specter of Donald Trump, who they know of their hearts has been not simply irrational however nasty on this concern, making an attempt to make use of it to attraction to the worst political instincts of individuals,” Mr. Schumer mentioned. He added that Republicans would face a alternative between Mr. Trump and the “specter of historical past trying down on them” ought to america abandon Ukraine.
The dearth of decision got here as no shock to Republicans, a few of whom jeered Mr. Schumer for pondering he may outmaneuver them in just some days’ time on a problem as important to their base as border safety — notably provided that the G.O.P.-led Home left city final week for the vacation break.
However Mr. Schumer and Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority chief, issued a joint assertion saying they had been “dedicated to addressing wants on the southern border and to serving to allies and companions confront severe threats in Israel, Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific.”
Mr. McConnell additionally acknowledged Democratic motion on border coverage, saying on Wednesday that “there’s not any disagreement that the state of affairs on the southern border is unsustainable and requires the Senate to behave.”
After a flurry of legislating the earlier two years with Congress underneath Democratic management, productivity in Congress declined sharply in 2023 underneath divided authorities. The Democratic-led Senate was spared the interior energy struggles that paralyzed the Republican-led Home on a number of events, however main laws was scarce.
“I don’t suppose the Senate has been practically as productive because it may have been,” Mr. McConnell informed reporters on Tuesday.
Mr. Schumer mentioned Democrats deserved credit score for stopping congressional Republicans from overturning their accomplishments of the earlier two years and averting fiscal chaos by forcing the G.O.P. into compromise agreements on elevating the debt restrict and briefly funding the federal government.
“We prevented them from doing the worst stuff,” he mentioned.
However Congress solely postponed what looms as a messy spending showdown by passing a stopgap invoice in mid-November. Nearly instantly upon returning subsequent month, the Home and the Senate will face two staggered deadlines for funding the federal government on Jan. 19 and Feb. 2.
With a lot of the concentrate on Ukraine, little progress has been made on the annual spending payments and lawmakers of each events are more and more sounding the alarm concerning the risks of cuts that might happen if no settlement will be reached. However Speaker Mike Johnson, who was put in after the ouster of Kevin McCarthy in October, has indicated that he is perhaps keen to just accept the cuts, a prospect that Mr. Schumer warned may spur an election-year backlash.
“We’ve got Senate Democrats, Home Democrats and Senate Republicans form of aligned,” he mentioned. “Johnson will study that it needs to be bipartisan.”
It’s unclear if the specter of the back-to-back authorities shutdown deadlines will infuse talks over the nationwide safety bundle with wanted momentum. Lawmakers could have solely 10 days as soon as they return to Washington to resolve a sequence of essential variations, together with essentially the most primary query of what measurement the remainder of the federal government’s 2024 fiscal yr price range ought to be. Congress additionally kicked into subsequent yr contentious fights over federal aviation security coverage and the renewal of an antiterrorism surveillance coverage.
A sweeping Pentagon coverage invoice was a uncommon vibrant spot for Congress this yr. Each the Home and the Senate passed the bill in December, regardless of objections from conservative lawmakers that it omitted a sequence of measures they’d sought to curtail Pentagon packages offering abortion entry, transgender well being providers and variety coaching. The laws’s passage maintained Congress’s greater than 60-year streak of authorizing spending for the navy.
The Senate additionally managed in its waning hours to beat an almost yearlong protest from Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama, who had blocked the promotions of a whole bunch of senior navy officers. Mr. Tuberville had demanded that the Pentagon reverse a coverage making certain that service members needing to go lengthy distances to acquire abortions or different types of reproductive well being care can be given day off and have their journey bills reimbursed.
On Tuesday, Mr. Tuberville allowed the final of the delayed promotions to proceed with out, Mr. Schumer mentioned, getting “one little bit of what he requested for — solely a whole lot of ache to navy households.”
