Congress returns with just days to avoid shutdown

Republican lawmakers fresh off their annual GOP legislative retreat will be confronting an all-too-familiar problem when they return to Washington on Monday: avoiding a government shutdown.

GOP leaders are eyeing a six-week funding bill that would keep the government’s lights on until March 23. The measure could include sweeteners like funding for community health centers.

But even though leaders dismissed concerns that the government could close down again when current funding runs dry on Thursday, it’s still unclear whether frustrated defense hawks will go along with the plan to pass a funding bill without a boost for the military.

"We've got to get a deal on [budget] caps," said Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.). "We have too many people, too many Republicans who are adamant that we got to come up with a defense number that takes into consideration the requirements that we need to meet for national security."

Congressional Republicans huddled at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., last week to hash out their legislative goals for 2018. But so far this year, their agenda has been hobbled by an inability to fund the government for more than a few weeks at a time.

A bitter impasse over immigration last month led to a three-day government shutdown, which ended after Democrats agreed to keep the government running for three more weeks, until Feb. 8.

Democrats are insisting that Congress pass an immigration bill before they agree to a budget caps deal, which is needed to write a massive omnibus spending bill for the rest of the fiscal year.

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/372114-congress-returns-with-just-days-to-avoid-shutdown?userid=229233