White House Meeting On Government Shutdown Underway Shortly

President Biden is shortly due to meet with the four Congressional leaders – House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) - at the White House.

• The meeting will primarily focus on avoiding a government shutdown on Saturday but Biden, McConnell, Schumer, and Jeffries will also apply pressure on Johnson to drop his blockade on the USD$95 billion foreign aid bill which includes new funding for Ukraine.
• Yesterday, senior Senate Republicans called on their House Republican colleagues to drop ‘policy riders’ to ease passage of a FY24 budget package and avert a government shutdown on Saturday.
• As has been the case at the past three FY24 funding deadlines, the Senate is largely aligned on the need to pass ‘clean’ funding bills. The complicating dynamic in the House comes via the powerful conservative faction which is ambivalent about the need to prevent a shutdown and motivated by ‘culture war’ policy and an inflexible position on spending.
• As current convention dictates that the House be given three-days to consider legislation, it is difficult to see any FY24 passing ahead of the Friday deadline unless the text of a four-bill spending package is released today.
• If a text isn't released today, another short-term Continuing Resolution will likely be required to punt the deadline into mid-March. A CR will not extend beyond April 30 when a punitive 1% spending cut will be triggered if a FY24 budget isn't in place.