Defense, health spending battle sparks new government shutdown threat

Disputes over defense and healthcare spending are threatening to hold up a spending bill that has to be passed next week in order to avoid a partial government shutdown, the same week Republicans are hoping to finish a major tax reform bill.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has pledged to block a House proposal to fund the government through Jan. 19. Schumer opposes the plan because it includes full-year funding for the Department of Defense that exceeds federal spending caps, but doesn't include any such language for domestic spending.

Democrats want parity for domestic spending, but Republicans are hoping to get to it next year. Democrats aren't happy with that.

“Lifting those spending caps in equal measure has been the basis of successful budget agreements going back several years,” Schumer argued on the Senate floor Thursday. “It has been parity between defense and nondefense for the three last budget negotiations and that is how it ought to stay. That is what brought us to good agreements, that’s what averted shutdowns.”

Schumer called the House proposal “a dead-end strategy” and pledged the measure “will quickly fail in the Senate.” Republicans can pass what they want in the House, but Democrats still have the power to block legislation in the upper chamber, so getting some kind of agreement will be needed to overcome that hurdle.