Congress appears poised to leave town before Christmas without a topline spending agreement, which could doom the chances of getting full-fledged fiscal 2024 appropriations bills done in January.
If there’s no deal on spending limits this week, lawmakers will essentially be out of time to work out the details of the 12 annual appropriations bills by Jan. 19, the first of two deadlines set in the last continuing resolution. The next deadline is Feb. 2, leaving little time to complete the last, larger batch of bills, particularly with the House scheduled to be in recess the week of Jan. 22.
House Republicans remain far apart from both parties in the Senate and House Democrats on the total allocations appropriators have to parcel out to the dozen subcommittees so they can wrap up their bills.
