Even After Republican Tax Win, Government Could Still Face Shutdown

Congress passed the GOP tax bill Wednesday after a delay late Tuesday. Now, lawmakers are working to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the week.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Congress gave final approval today to a mammoth tax bill with more than $1.5 trillion in cuts. That was a reason for Republicans to celebrate with President Trump at the White House.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They have been working on this for years - years and years. And I just want to turn around, and I want to thank them all. They are very, very special people. Thank you very much, everybody.

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SHAPIRO: Lawmakers have a lot more work to do before they go home for the holidays. Without congressional action, the federal government runs out of money at midnight on Friday. And legislation affecting children's health care, veterans and national security is all up in the air. Joining us now to discuss this from Capitol Hill is NPR's Susan Davis. Hi, Sue.

SUSAN DAVIS, BYLINE: Hey, Ari.

SHAPIRO: Republicans are feeling really good at this moment. Is there any appetite on Capitol Hill to now risk a government shutdown?

DAVIS: There is not. You know, this is arguably the best day Republicans in Congress have had since they took the majority in the White House this year. They don't want to step on that win. President Trump has made it very clear to both Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that he doesn't want a shutdown.

This is where it's at right now. There's a bunch of sort of rapidly paced negotiations going on. But what it looks like is that Congress will do what they often do at this time of year. They're going to punt. They're talking about a short-term stopgap funding to just keep the government running for about a month until January 19 and put off a lot of these really tough decisions until next month.

SHAPIRO: As you well know, these must-pass spending bills often become a vehicle for other must-pass bills. So what do you expect members of Congress might attach to this one?

DAVIS: This time will be no different. We often joke at this time of year. They're called the Christmas tree bills because everybody wants their ornament hung up on it. There's a couple of different things being talked about in varying degrees of urgency to them. One of the more pressing we're talking about is $81 billion emergency disaster aid funding. That's a big priority for lawmakers in places like California and Florida and Texas. They want to get that done before they leave.

They also need to send some more money into a veterans program that helps pay for their health care. And the authorization for the federal government to run federal surveillance programs as part of the U.S. intelligence apparatus is expiring at the end of the year. They need to either attach those things to the bill, or they need to address them separately before they can leave town.

SHAPIRO: Also, the Senate majority leader made a promise that Congress would pass legislation to stabilize the individual health insurance market. That's how he won the vote of Senator Susan Collins of Maine on the tax bill. Is that Obamacare fix likely to happen?

DAVIS: It's not, and that also happened today. And Collins acknowledged that she will not get those votes. What happened was that Senate Majority Leader had - Mitch McConnell had promised her he was going to get these done, and House Republicans just said no way, no how, we're not doing it. So it does put Mitch McConnell in a bit of a jam, and Susan Collins says that they will try again next month in January to attach it to a longer-term spending bill. And also today, President Trump said he does support those bills, so that could help win over some of those skeptical House Republicans.

Congress also needs to figure out what they're going to do about CHIP. That's the Children's Health Insurance Program. It affects about 9 million kids in this country. It expired back in September. So they're either going to need another short-term patch or try and find a long-term solution. Again, they're looking to January to do that.

SHAPIRO: And of course a top priority for Democrats was what they've called the DACA fix on immigration affecting people who were brought here illegally as young children. Where does that stand?

DAVIS: Democrats have walked back that demand that it needs to be done before the end of the year, and that's because they say there is serious productive talks going on behind the scenes. One of the Republicans involved in that, Jeff Flake of Arizona, said he has a commitment from Mitch McConnell. That will get a vote, again, next month in January. That's going to be a very busy month.

SHAPIRO: Busy January (laughter) - NPR's Susan Davis, thanks a lot.

DAVIS: You're welcome.

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