Many Democrats — and some powerful Senate Republicans — are insisting billions of dollars be spent beyond the limit agreed upon in this year’s grand budget deal. | Getty Images Veterans spending dispute raises specter of stopgap

Inviting more stopgap spending, the White House has fired off an official warning against congressional efforts to blow through budget limits.

Top Trump administration officials sent a letter Monday cautioning lawmakers against raising spending caps to accommodate shifts in funding for a popular veterans health program, though they stopped short of threatening a veto.


Many Democrats — and some powerful Senate Republicans — are insisting billions of dollars be spent beyond the limit agreed upon in this year’s grand budget deal.

The White House’s public stand draws battle lines in the first major showdown ahead of this fall’s funding deadline, endangering congressional efforts to clear updated spending levels before fiscal 2018 cash runs out Sept. 30.

The likely result: Another continuing resolution that extends funding at current levels as lawmakers and the administration struggle to find consensus.

Although funding for veterans programs is riding within a package that houses just three of the 12 annual funding bills, the breakdown does not bode well for broader spending negotiations leading up to the fiscal 2019 deadline.

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Issuing partisan jabs two months before September's end, White House officials are accusing Democrats of being deceitful and using veterans funding as a ploy to raise government spending.

“Congressional Democrats want to use this opportunity as another way to yet again increase the caps,” one administration source said.

But the issue is complicated.

Just last month President Donald Trump signed into law a bill that switched up some veterans health programs and shifted funding sources, requiring Congress to allocate money that used to be guaranteed. Because that shift came after the budget deal was struck, top spending leaders in the Senate contend that it doesn’t make sense to be constrained to the old top line established before the change to the veterans program.

The Trump administration and House Republicans are dogged in their resistance to that approach, however. And House leaders called off the first negotiating meeting last week on fiscal 2019 spending after it became clear that the Senate Appropriations Committee’s top Democrat, Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), was planning to offer an amendment that would fund the veterans health efforts with money above the budget caps.

In their letter Monday, Trump administration officials said Congress’ current allocation is “more than sufficient” to make up for the shortfall in money for the veterans health program.

“This funding can and should be provided within the existing non-Defense discretionary spending cap, and the Administration opposes efforts to increase or adjust the cap,” the letter says.

The Trump administration has for weeks been pushing its stance behind the scenes, with help from House GOP leaders, who say they, too, are unwilling to reconsider the budget limits.