Senate fiscal hawks make their demands in spending talks with Thune
Senate fiscal hawks, including Senators Mike Lee and Rick Scott, have presented their conditions to Senate Majority Leader John Thune regarding a spending bill package known as the minibus, which funds the Pentagon and othre federal agencies. Their main demand is that Republicans uphold a self-imposed ban on earmarks, which some appropriators have recently disregarded.Lee also criticized the inclusion of certain authorizing bill provisions in the Interior Department spending measure without proper consultation, as he chairs the relevant committee. Additionally,they seek progress on senator Ron Johnson’s Shutdown Fairness act,which mandates pay for essential workers during government funding lapses. Scott emphasized the importance of preserving House language that prevents federal funding for abortion and transgender surgeries in the health and Human Services bill. While Thune aims to resolve procedural objections that delay the minibus’s passage, several Senate republicans maintain their holds. Thune argues that the minibus offers lower spending than a temporary funding extension, but some senators, including lee, remain unconvinced. The discussions continue as senators negotiate to break the impasse.
Senate fiscal hawks make their demands in spending talks with Thune
EXCLUSIVE — Fiscal hawks are laying out to Senate leadership what it would take for them to drop their objections to a spending bill appropriators hope to begin moving in the coming days.
Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rick Scott (R-FL) met with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) toward the tail end of Republicans’ conference lunch about the minibus, a package of appropriations bills that would fund the Pentagon and other federal agencies.
Their chief demand, made in public and private, is that Republicans adhere to a self-imposed ban on earmarks that some senators, many of them appropriators, have ignored in recent years. But Lee, in particular, is upset about a “bunch of authorizing bill text” that he says was “smuggled” into the Interior Department spending measure, he told the Washington Examiner, arguing there was not appropriate consultation given that he chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Interior Department.
Separately, the fiscal hawks are seeking a path forward on Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-WI) Shutdown Fairness Act, which would require pay for essential workers during a lapse in government funding, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Johnson huddled with Scott and Lee in a Senate hideaway after their meeting with Thune and will be joining them later on Wednesday for another meeting with the majority leader, according to the source.
In a brief interview, Scott also said he wanted the Senate to preserve House language that blocks federal funding for abortion procedures and transgender surgeries in the Department of Health and Human Services bill.
The meetings come as Thune attempts to winnow down a series of “holds,” or procedural objections, that are keeping the Senate from passing a minibus of as many as five annual spending bills.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) initially objected to the minibus, he told the Washington Examiner, but dropped his hold in exchange for language on artificial intelligence he said would be included.
The legislation, co-sponsored with Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), would require the Labor Department to monitor and publish the number of jobs lost to AI.
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In recent days, Thune has made the case that fiscal conservatives are better off dropping their objections, suggesting a minibus would include lower spending than the alternative: a short-term spending patch that keeps levels flat.
But those assurances have not been enough to break the logjam, with about five Senate Republicans keeping their holds in place. Lee called Thune’s assurance on lower spending levels “helpful, but not necessarily dispositive.”
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