Meanwhile the Senate is working on passing the first three of its appropriations bills, after weeks of procedural delays. GOP Senator Mike Rounds expressed hope that the Senate could take up the remaining nine appropriations bills in an expedited fashion, and noted that—unlike in the House—the Senate measures are passing with support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The Senate appropriations bills are hewing to the spending levels agreed to by Biden and McCarthy, and do not include some of the far-right priorities that have been tucked into the House measures.
“The fact that it’s coming out of the Senate on a bipartisan plan hopefully will allow the House to recognize in a bipartisan way, as well, that in divided government, you’re never going to get anything you want, and you try to make progress,” Rounds told me. (When asked whether he was ready to put the “fun” back in “government funding,” Rounds laughed and replied: “I haven’t quite heard that before.”)
Also at issue: a supplemental funding request by the Biden administration for aid to Israel and Ukraine, as well as money dedicated to shoring up the southern border. Republicans have expressed concerns about the supplemental, making its prospects somewhat tenuous. “I would be quite surprised if the president’s supplemental got an up-or-down vote as a package. I think there’s overwhelming interest in breaking that into some different parts,” GOP Representative Dusty Johnson told me on Tuesday.