The House and Senate on Friday night passed a two-day temporary spending bill to stave off a weekend government shutdown and buy lawmakers more time to strike a sweeping year-end deal as negotiations over another stimulus package dragged on.
President Trump was expected to sign the short-term spending bill, punting the threat of a government shutdown until midnight on Sunday.
Negotiators in both chambers insisted they were still optimistic about reaching a stimulus deal in the coming days and talks are expected to continue through the weekend. But negotiations over the $900 billion proposal were snagged by a Republican attempt to curb the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending powers, and rank and file lawmakers began to grow antsy late Friday as their leaders continued to fight over details in the coronavirus package.
“We are hopeful that they will reach agreement in the near future,” Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the majority leader, said after the vote, referring to stimulus talks. “They have not reached one yet. There are still some significant issues outstanding.”
In a sign of the growing discontent, Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, had threatened to object to the must-pass short-term government funding measure as leverage to secure an additional $600 in direct payments in the final stimulus package that lawmakers are haggling over, which would bring the total to $1,200.
The scramble came as President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. pushed back on a Republican effort to use the emerging stimulus deal to bar the Fed from restarting a series of pandemic relief programs, weighing in on a last-minute dispute that was hampering final agreement on the $900 billion package.
The proposal, which would bar the central bank from reviving emergency lending efforts that expire at year’s end and potentially limit its ability to fight future financial crises, emerged on Friday as perhaps the thorniest point of contention holding up the stimulus agreement. It could take away some of the Fed’s power as a “lender of last resort,” and curtail Mr. Biden’s latitude in dealing with the continuing economic fallout from the pandemic.
[Read more about the fight over the Fed’s programs.]
In a statement, Brian Deese, whom Mr. Biden has selected to chair the National Economic Council, argued that the measure “could put our future financial stability at risk.”
“The package should not include unnecessary provisions that would hamper the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve’s ability to fight economic crises,” Mr. Deese said. “As we navigate through an unprecedented economic crisis, it is in the interests of the American people to maintain the Fed’s ability to respond…
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