[W]ASHINGTON — Short-term resolutions and late-in-the-game omnibus spending bills have become common in the Capitol of late.
However, key Senate figures are seeking to revive a more deliberative process to set federal discretionary spending.
Senate Appropriations Chair Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Vice Chair Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., are working to set terms for the appropriations process to avoid last-minute spending packages.
The two convened a meeting with all members of the committee on Monday to discuss a return to a more regular process to take up the bills for the next fiscal year.
Then on Tuesday, the two Appropriations leaders sat down with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for an hour to map out a process for the next spending package.
In an interview, Leahy said the four men worked out guidelines for bringing bills forward, allowing amendments, and making a bipartisan effort to oppose so-called “poison pill riders” — controversial provisions tacked onto bills that deter support for them.
Impasses over government spending led to two weekend shutdowns this year before lawmakers passed an omnibus last month — half way through the fiscal year.
Leahy has become “convinced in my own mind that one of the reasons for the Senate becoming as dysfunctional as it’s been is the breakdown of the appropriations process,” he said.
He recalled that someone once told him that the appropriations process is the “institutional flywheel of the Senate,” because everyone knew the spending package had to go through. He would like to restore that process.
Shelby also said Congress has shifted away from how business used to be done.
“We didn’t, as a rule, lurch from crisis to crisis,” he said.
“We’ve got to go to regular order,” he said. “We’ve got to work together toward that common good, not load the bills up with riders, which all of us have done to make a statement at times.”
While political tensions may be higher in the mid-term election year, appropriators’ tasks could be eased because a budget framework is already in place for the next two years. Lawmakers set that deal in February.
Both Shelby and Leahy said they are optimistic the Senate will be able to pass some bills through the process by the end of the fiscal year in September, however they said it would be unlikely that they could move all 12 through by that time. Shelby floated the possibility of a “mini-bus” containing the other spending areas that don’t get finished by then.
In remarks on the floor Thursday, McConnell said he had a “productive meeting” with Schumer, Shelby and Leahy.
Subsequently, he said, the Rules Committee started the process to look at more efficiently handle the spending bills. He said he hopes the Senate will adopt that spirit of collaboration for handling confirmations of nominees, which he argues Senate Democrats have obstructed, taking up the chamber’s time.
“So I’m hopeful about the prospects of moving forward together,” McConnell said. “We need to keep this momentum going and extend it not just to appropriations, but to nominations.”
In response, Leahy said that many nominations have gone through by voice vote.
“There are some that raise red flags,” he said, pointing to President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Veterans Affairs. Dr. Ronny Jackson withdrew this week amid allegations of misconduct in his current post as White House doctor.
Leahy also charged Senate Republicans had a record of obstructing nominees during the Obama administration, in particular blocking a nomination for a Supreme Court justice from advancing.
However, the senator is optimistic reforming the appropriations process will break a partisan logjam.
“I think the appropriations committees can give us a lead out of it,” Leahy said. “On nominations and everything else.”
