The US Senate’s top Republican on Wednesday issued a downbeat assessment of talks on a US government spending bill, warning that it would require a “laser focus from both parties and both chambers” to meet next week’s deadline and avert a federal shutdown.
Across the Capitol, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with Hispanic lawmakers about the upcoming appropriations measure, which is likely to largely maintain US President Donald Trump’s tactical ability to increase spending on security on the border with Mexico.
It is part of an effort to solidify support for the emerging catchall funding bill, which promises to deliver plenty of small-bore victories for lawmakers in both parties and is seen as preferable to the alternative of simply keeping the government on autopilot.
“To be frank, only a laser focus from both parties and both chambers on getting results will create a path to pass appropriations bills this year,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said. “There simply is not time left for my Democratic friends to continue haggling over ... poison pills, partisan policy riders and presidential transfer authorities.”
As is often the case, Pelosi and US Representative Kevin McCarthy are feuding, this time about a McCarthy bid for additional funding for a dam project that would provide more water for farmers in California’s Central Valley.
A government shutdown is possible with a stopgap spending bill to expire at the end of next week and negotiations must close in time for the US Senate to process a year-end spending package.
Another temporary funding bill, called a continuing resolution, could be needed to avert a repeat of last year’s 35-day partial federal shutdown.
At issue is the almost one-third of the federal budget passed by the US Congress each year for day-to-day operations of federal agencies. This year’s annual appropriations cycle was supposed to be relatively easy after this summer’s budget and debt deal reversed a sharp set of spending cuts that would have otherwise struck both the Pentagon and domestic agencies.
However, a Senate move to more than triple a key border wall account sparked a two-month stalemate. Negotiations are back on track, with most of the US$5 billion for wall spending being returned to other domestic accounts.
Trump is likely to refuse to sign any bill that denies wall funding or curtails transfers from Pentagon accounts to border work.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not