Democrats set to unveil stopgap bill to prevent shutdown

WASHINGTON — House Democrats on Friday prepared a temporary spending bill that is needed to avert a government shutdown at the end of the month — and that would allow lawmakers to leave Washington to campaign.

It’s a lowest-common-denominator, bare-minimum measure that befits a deeply polarized Congress. Even so, it took intense efforts at the highest levels of Washington to finish the package.

Republicans denied Democratic requests involving the census and election administration grants. What remains is not controversial and includes provisions that would extend federal highway and flood insurance programs, along with a variety of other low-profile items.

And, as previously announced, the bill does not contain covid-19 relief, leaving that issue in all likelihood for a post-election lame duck session — or for the next administration.

The temporary funding measure comes as some Democrats are increasingly upset an impasse over coronavirus relief is reflecting poorly on the party and as President Trump agitates for a deal that’s more generous than other Republicans would like.

But with covid-19 rescue negotiations dead in the water, the stopgap spending bill is likely to be the only measure of note that passes before the election. Not long ago, such measures barely attracted notice, but there have been a handful of government shutdowns over the past few years. Congress has become so dysfunctional, crafting stopgap measures requires more attention from top leaders.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin negotiated the measure, which would keep the government open through Dec. 11. Democrats had proposed next February, apparently to avert any need to reconvene Congress after the election to deal with Trump, who they predict will lose his bid for a second term in November.

In conversations Friday, Pelosi and Mnuchin abandoned efforts to iron out wrinkles involving the census and election administration grants to states, though a heavily lobbied package to extend a number of health programs was included.

Democrats were denied $400 million in grants to states to help them carry out elections this fall. Republicans also rejected a push by Pelosi to delay the once-a-decade apportionment of House seats after the census until the next administration.

The House is slated to pass the stopgap funding bill — called a continuing resolution, or CR in Washington-speak — next week. They are likely to then recess for the campaign.