Federal shutdown, border security, aid for Israel and Ukraine on agenda as Congress returns

WASHINGTON — When Congress returns to work this week, lawmakers will face two quick deadlines to approve funding to keep the government open — along with a battle over border security, as it weighs additional aid for Israel and Ukraine and other national security issues.

High on the agenda will be a compromise on tightening border security to stem the unprecedented influx of migrants, which House Republicans emphasized last week with a trip to Eagle Pass, Texas, amid a bipartisan Senate negotiation on fixing immigration policy.

Those three bills lead the list of must-pass measures that include authorizations of federal programs in the next few months, as lawmakers begin to shift their attention to high-stakes presidential and congressional elections.

Meanwhile, House Republicans will begin holding impeachment hearings on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday and plan to hold hearings in the inquiry into whether to impeach President Joe Biden over the next two months.

Senate Democrats and House Republicans have narrow and fragile majorities but can still block each other’s more partisan demands as they take up issues they must resolve over the next several weeks.

Here is a rundown of the most pressing issues facing Congress.

Government funding

Congress faces two deadlines to keep the government open by funding federal departments, agencies and programs through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, with the first coming just two weeks after Congress reconvenes.

On Jan. 19, short-term funding enacted in November expires for four appropriations bills for departments including Agriculture, Energy, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development.

On Feb. 2, funding expires for the remaining eight appropriations bills for the departments of Defense, State, Justice, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and Labor, among others, as well as the legislative branch.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and their staffs have been negotiating for weeks on the top-line numbers for each spending category and finally reached an agreement on Sunday, according to Democrats.

“We have been working in earnest and in good faith with the Senate and the White House virtually every day through the holidays to come to an agreement,” Johnson told reporters last week.

The bipartisan agreement sets defense funding at $886 billion for the current fiscal year, and in a big win for Democrats, includes nearly $773 billion in domestic spending, a total that counts tens of billions of dollars agreed to alongside the debt limit package.

Now comes another hard part with little time left: The appropriations committees in the House and the Senate must turn the new top-line spending amounts into detailed spending.

“Both sides will need to work together in a bipartisan way and avoid a costly and disruptive shutdown,” said Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) in a statement Sunday.

Supplemental funds

On Oct. 20, Biden requested additional funding, not included in the appropriations, of $110 billion to support Ukraine and Israel in their wars, strategic investments in the Indo-Pacific to counter China, additional funds for the Defense Department — and money for the border.

Though several House Republicans have backed away from aid to Ukraine, the biggest sticking point has become border security, prompting negotiations over a compromise deal that Republicans and Democrats could support.

Last week, Johnson and about 60 House Republicans, including Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville), traveled to Eagle Pass, Texas, to demand that the Senate pass its restrictive H.R. 2 immigration bill that contains Trump administration measures lifted by Biden.

“If President Biden wants a supplemental spending bill focused on national security, it better begin with defending America’s national security,” Johnson said at a news conference there. “We want to get the border closed and secured first.”

Schumer has pointed out that H.R. 2, which would make it harder for migrants to apply for and win asylum, end protections for unaccompanied migrant children and require construction of 900 miles of border walls, did not get a single Democratic vote in Congress and is a nonstarter.

Negotiators led by Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), and including Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and top White House officials, began meeting in person last week after talks over the holidays.

“I’ve told Speaker Johnson repeatedly the only way we're going to get this done is bipartisan,” Schumer said, noting that a compromise must get 60 votes in the Senate.

“And that means, you know, everyone's got to meet somewhere in the middle and no one will be totally happy with whatever solution we come up with,” he said. “But it's a lot better than doing nothing because the border is broken.”

Impeachments

To double down on the importance they put on the influx of migrants across the border, and to discredit Biden, House Republicans will begin impeachment hearings this week against Mayorkas.

Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) said last week his panel would hold the first of four impeachment hearings on Mayorkas on Wednesday, in what could lead to the first impeachment trial of a Cabinet member since 1876.

“Our investigation made clear that this crisis finds its foundation in Secretary Mayorkas’ decision making and refusal to enforce the laws passed by Congress, and that his failure to fulfill his oath of office demands accountability,” Green said in a statement.

Mayorkas said he would cooperate with the inquiry but that he remains focused on his job.

“The president has confidence in the secretary,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said. She said the charges are “baseless,” and added, “We believe that it's a political stunt and we believe there's no time for that right now.”

Meanwhile, House Republicans last month voted to formally open an impeachment inquiry into Biden after yearlong investigations by the House Oversight and Judiciary committees.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) last month said he would bring in nine more witnesses during the first two months of this year.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) called the inquiry “an extreme political stunt” and “a sideshow.”

Democrats said they won’t vote for either impeachment and that neither will get the required 67 Senate votes to succeed.