CNN
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President Joe Biden is set to convene the highest 4 congressional leaders on the White Home on Tuesday, a high-stakes assembly with a partial authorities shutdown simply 4 days away and nonetheless no clear path to avert it on Capitol Hill.
The assembly additionally comes because the White Home ratchets up strain on lawmakers to go further funding to Ukraine. The Senate passed a bill with aid for Ukraine and Israel earlier this month, however Home Speaker Mike Johnson has mentioned he doesn’t plan to convey the invoice to the ground, and a big variety of GOP Home members oppose additional support to Ukraine.
The highest 4 congressional leaders embrace Johnson, Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell and Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries.
In a flooring speech Monday, Schumer pressed Home Republican management to “resist basing our selections on what folks like Donald Trump need Congress to do” and go crucial funding payments earlier than a partial authorities shutdown or a collapse in Ukraine in its struggle in opposition to Russia.
McConnell warned Monday {that a} partial shutdown can be “dangerous to the nation” and argued that it’s “totally avoidable” if the Home and the Senate can work collectively.
Senators returned to Washington, DC, on Monday, however the Home received’t be again till Wednesday, leaving little time forward of a fast-approaching Friday deadline.
Lawmakers had hoped to launch the textual content of a bipartisan spending deal Sunday night, however the invoice has but to be unveiled and high-level disagreements over coverage points stay as Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, is underneath immense pressure from his right flank to combat for conservative wins.
Congress is confronting a pair of shutdown deadlines – on March 1 and March 8 – after lawmakers passed a short-term funding invoice in January. On the finish of the day Friday, funding will expire for a sequence of key authorities businesses if lawmakers don’t act.
Within the Home, Johnson has little room to maneuver with a historically narrow majority and an more and more combative proper flank.
Hardline conservatives have revolted over the chamber’s passage of earlier stopgap funding payments and over a topline deal the speaker struck with Schumer to set spending near $1.66 trillion general.
Johnson received the gavel after conservatives ousted former Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy in a historic vote final 12 months, elevating the query of whether or not the Louisiana Republican might sooner or later face an identical menace in opposition to his speakership.
Funding extends by March 1 for a sequence of presidency businesses, together with the departments of Agriculture, Power, Transportation, Veterans Affairs, and Housing and City Growth, in addition to the Meals and Drug Administration and different priorities similar to navy building.
A further set of presidency businesses and packages are funded by March 8, together with the departments of Justice, Commerce, Protection, Homeland Safety, State, Schooling, Inside, and Well being and Human Providers, in addition to the Environmental Safety Company and the legislative department.
CNN’s Kristin Wilson, Morgan Rimmer and Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this report.