Lawmakers race to avoid looming shutdown as blame game begins

Lawmakers are racing to avoid a partial shutdown by Friday’s funding deadline, an effort that grew more difficult over the weekend after leaders failed to reach a deal — and traded barbs on who is responsible for the holdup.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced Sunday that congressional leaders had not yet reached an agreement on compromise spending bills, blaming House Republicans for the delay. But Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) shot back, placing the onus on “new Democrat demands” in negotiations.

The Senate reconvenes Monday, and House lawmakers are back in Washington on Wednesday, leaving lawmakers just a handful of days to hash out their differences and approve appropriations bills — or, if needed, clear another short-term stopgap. Four spending measures are due Friday, and the remaining eight must be approved by March 8.

President Biden is hosting the top four Congressional leaders at the White House on Tuesday to discuss the upcoming government funding deadline and the Senate-passed foreign aid package that is awaiting action in the House.

Also this week, Hunter Biden is set to testify before the House Oversight and Judiciary committees as part of the GOP’s impeachment inquiry into his father, President Biden, a closed-door deposition that marks a make-or-break moment for the probe, which has been met with skepticism from Republicans inside and outside the Capitol.

In the upper chamber, senators are awaiting retrieval of the articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, though questions remain about how Schumer will handle the charges.

Sprint to shutdown deadline

Government funding is at the top of the to-do list for Congress this week as lawmakers stare down a Friday deadline to pass four appropriations bills or face a partial shutdown.

It is the fourth time this Congress that members are facing a shutdown cliff.

Appropriators closed out the weekend without releasing the compromise spending bills that have been the subject of negotiations for months, putting lawmakers behind the eight ball as Friday’s deadline quickly approaches.

Funding for military construction, water development and the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Veterans Affairs, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development lapse Friday. The remaining eight spending bills expire March 8.

The top four Congressional leaders — Johnson, Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — will convene at the White House on Tuesday to meet with Biden and discuss government funding and the stalled foreign aid package.

The “four corners” last met at the White House in January to discuss sending additional aid for Ukraine. Johnson, however, has been pushing for a one-on-one meeting with Biden to discuss national security and the border.

This week’s gathering comes after Schumer and Johnson played a round of the blame game over the weekend, holding each other responsible for the delayed announcement of the compromise appropriations bills.

“While we had hoped to have legislation ready this weekend that would give ample time for members to review the text, it is clear now that House Republicans need more time to sort themselves out,” Schumer wrote in a “Dear colleague” letter Sunday.

He called on Johnson to “step up to once again buck the extremists in his caucus and do the right thing” when it comes to funding the government.

Johnson, however, clapped back at the letter and its “counterproductive rhetoric,” writing in a statement that it was the Democrats’ fault that the bicameral bills had not been rolled out.

“Leader Schumer’s letter fails to mention that many of the points still being debated come from new Democrat demands that were not previously included in the Senate bills,” Johnson said. “At a time of divided government, Senate Democrats are attempting at this late stage to spend on priorities that are farther left than what their chamber agreed upon.”

“This is not a time for petty politics,” he added, noting that “the House has worked nonstop, and is continuing to work in good faith, to reach agreement with the Senate on compromise government funding bills in advance of the deadlines.”

Johnson is looking to stave off this week’s partial shutdown by passing a package of spending bills, known as a “minibus,” a source familiar with the situation told The Hill over the weekend. It is unclear how many appropriations measures will be in the package, but Johnson’s goal is to include the four due Friday, the source said.

Hunter Biden to testify on Capitol Hill

Hunter Biden, the president’s son, will go face-to-face with Republican lawmakers Wednesday during a closed-door deposition that comes at a crucial moment in the GOP’s impeachment inquiry.

The highly anticipated deposition — set to begin at 10 a.m. with the House Oversight and Judiciary committees — comes after a handful of setbacks for the Republican-led probe, and will take place amid increased skepticism in the GOP over the strength of the conference’s case.

Last week, James Biden, the president’s brother, sat for a transcribed interview and testified the president “never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interest in those activities.” And earlier this month, the Justice Department indicted the FBI informant at the heart of the GOP’s key claim against President Biden, alleging the confidential human source fabricated his assertions about him.

The committees will now turn their attention to Hunter Biden, who they have long said is key to the case against the president. Republicans have looked into the younger Biden’s business activities and personal life, investigating alleged “influence peddling” from when his father was vice president.

“We will see what Hunter Biden says this Wednesday,” House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”

Wednesday’s deposition marks the culmination of a months-long battle between Republicans on the committees and Hunter Biden over the terms of his appearance.

Republicans issued him a subpoena in November, requesting he appear before the panels. The next month, on the day of his scheduled deposition, Biden delivered a brief statement in the Capitol complex, defying the subpoena and re-upping his request to testify in a public setting rather than behind closed doors. Republicans, however, had insisted he first sit for a private deposition before a public hearing.

Biden’s defiance prompted Republicans to move ahead with a resolution to hold him in contempt of Congress. But ahead of the full House vote on the resolution, Hunter Biden’s team said he would testify privately if the GOP reissued him a subpoena, arguing that the first one was not valid because it was sent before the lower chamber voted to authorize the impeachment inquiry — a request Republicans complied with.

Senate waits for Mayorkas impeachment articles

The Senate this week is preparing to deal with the articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, after the House voted to penalize him earlier this month.

How the chamber addresses the articles, however, remains up in the air.

Schumer announced the day Mayorkas was impeached that the House impeachment managers would present the articles to the Senate after recess, then senators will be sworn in to serve as jurors during the trial, which Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray (D-Wash.) will preside over.

The first question surrounding the next step for the impeachment of Mayorkas is when the articles will be transmitted from the House to the Senate, a matter that has been complicated by the looming government funding deadline. Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) told The Hill last week that he expects the chamber to take up the articles this week.

Then there is the question of how the Senate will handle the articles. Schumer could attempt to dismiss the charges, table them or send them to a special committee, all of which would require a majority vote in the chamber. Referring them to a special committee would allow the panel to review the articles and punt a vote on the matter to after Election Day, which could shield vulnerable Senate Democrats from having to take a tough vote ahead of November.