Senate appropriators warn of year-end train wreck

Senior senators on both sides of the aisle raised warning flags Wednesday about the path ahead for spending bills in the absence of a bipartisan agreement on subcommittee allocations for defense, domestic and foreign aid programs.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a longtime appropriator, and other senior Appropriations Committee members called for bipartisan agreement between both chambers and the White House on spending toplines in order to avoid a series stopgap bills or yet another partial government shutdown later this year.

“Members, through no fault of their own, are left in the position of trying to plant individual trees with no overall agreement about the shape of the forest,” McConnell said during the Appropriations panel’s first markup of the year. “That’s not going to fly on the Senate floor, and we know it.”

The committee broke from past precedent this year and opted not to approve a slate of subcommittee spending levels, known as 302(b)s, before it approved the fiscal 2022 Agriculture, Energy-Water and Military Construction-VA bills.

Appropriations Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., said he didn’t want the lack of a bipartisan, bicameral agreement on spending levels to completely stall the panel’s work. But he reiterated calls for congressional leaders to begin serious negotiations with the White House.

“I hope that topline discussions advance during the August break. I know I expect to be on the phone with a lot of people during that time — whenever that August break is,” Leahy said, alluding to the somewhat opaque Senate floor schedule.