Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said during a Sunday morning interview on ABC’s This Week show that he believes Congress will work to avoid a government shutdown at the end of this week, Bloomberg reported Monday.
McConnell’s statement came a day after the House unveiled a plan to pass another continuing resolution in a move to extend federal funding through Dec. 22 as the current stopgap measure approaches the Dec. 8 deadline.
He noted that he does not think the federal government would shut down over Congress’ failure to address the issue over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program since lawmakers have until March to come up with a plan to address DACA.
The two-week extension to federal funding to avert a shutdown also aims to provide lawmakers in both chambers time to reconcile their tax reform bills into a final measure.
Defense News also reported that some members of the House Armed Services Committee called on Defense Secretary James Mattis, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and other military leaders to ask Congress to avoid another CR by passing a budget measure for fiscal 2018 before the end of the year.
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wisconsin), Rep. Austin Scott (R-Georgia) and Rep. Trent Kelly (R-Mississippi) made the call Friday during the hearing of the HASC readiness subcommittee.
Navy Vice Adm. Andrew Lewis, deputy chief of naval operations for operations; Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Brian Beaudreault, deputy commandant for plans, policies and operations; and Cary Russell, director of the Government Accountability Office’s defense capabilities and management team; testified during the House subpanel hearing.
