Biden to meet with top Hill leaders with partial government shutdown only four days away

Originally Published: 27 FEB 24 07:00 ET By Clare Foran and Michael Williams, CNN

(CNN) — President Joe Biden is set to convene the top four congressional leaders at the White House on Tuesday, a high-stakes meeting with a partial government shutdown just four days away and still no clear path to avert it on Capitol Hill.

The meeting also comes as the White House ratchets up pressure on lawmakers to pass additional funding to Ukraine. The Senate passed a bill with aid for Ukraine and Israel earlier this month, but House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he does not plan to bring the bill to the floor, and a significant number of GOP House members oppose further aid to Ukraine.

The top four congressional leaders include Johnson, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

In a floor speech Monday, Schumer pressed House Republican leadership to “resist basing our choices on what people like Donald Trump want Congress to do” and pass critical funding bills before a partial government shutdown or a collapse in Ukraine in its war against Russia.

McConnell warned Monday that a partial shutdown would be “harmful to the country” and argued that it is “entirely avoidable” if the House and the Senate can work together.

Senators returned to Washington, DC, on Monday, but the House won’t be back until Wednesday, leaving little time ahead of a fast-approaching Friday deadline.

Lawmakers had hoped to release the text of a bipartisan spending deal Sunday evening, but the bill has yet to be unveiled and high-level disagreements over policy issues remain as Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, is under immense pressure from his right flank to fight for conservative wins.

Congress is confronting a pair of shutdown deadlines – on March 1 and March 8 – after lawmakers passed a short-term funding bill in January. At the end of the day Friday, funding will expire for a series of key government agencies if lawmakers do not act.

In the House, Johnson has little room to maneuver with a historically narrow majority and an increasingly combative right flank.

Hardline conservatives have revolted over the chamber’s passage of earlier stopgap funding bills and over a topline deal the speaker struck with Schumer to set spending close to $1.66 trillion overall.

Johnson won the gavel after conservatives ousted former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in a historic vote last year, raising the question of whether the Louisiana Republican may at some point face a similar threat against his speakership.

Funding extends through March 1 for a series of government agencies, including the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Transportation, Veterans Affairs, and Housing and Urban Development, as well as the Food and Drug Administration and other priorities such as military construction.

An additional set of government agencies and programs are funded through March 8, including the departments of Justice, Commerce, Defense, Homeland Security, State, Education, Interior, and Health and Human Services, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and the legislative branch.

CNN’s Kristin Wilson, Morgan Rimmer and Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this report.

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