GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Monday, Oct. 23 where we cannot believe we’re doing this all over again this week. SENATE SPENDING DEBATE VIBE CHECK: NOT GREAT! When senators return to session Tuesday, they’re hoping to demonstrate progress on government funding bills as well as movement on the White House’s national security supplemental request — which came in at a whopping $106 billion. Both of those goals won’t be easy. Objecting to an aid marriage: The White House emergency funding request lumps together aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, a notion that’s effectively D.O.A. with the House GOP (once it can open its chamber for business again). But the effort probably has some legs in the Senate, even though Republicans won’t love making support for Israel conditional on help for Ukraine. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell tried to soften the ground on his side of the aisle this weekend by framing the mega-aid package as a way to stick it to Iran, China and Russia all at once. “It's a lot, but it's the things that are urgent because of circumstances. And this is not something that's been put together for the convenience of the leadership," Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said on the supplemental request Monday. The caveat: Border security provisions are also supposed to be in the emergency aid deal, which is likely to complicate things even in the Senate. As Welch put it diplomatically to reporters, “The border is always difficult.†Republicans are likely to push for more than what the administration is asking for the border, either when it comes to policy changes, funding, or both. “There’s a lot of debate about what some of the policies are. And that's a fair debate. But it's unlikely that, in the supplemental, there'll be a lot of room to address that," Welch said. On top of that, other Democrats want to pack even more funding into the deal. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Monday called for lawmakers to also seek money for domestic “crises†like “child care, health care, housing, opioid addiction — that need major funding NOW.†The Biden administration is expected to send another supplemental request this week focused on domestic issues like the ones Sanders outlined, as our colleagues recently reported. But that separate request would be a nearly-impossible sell for Republicans on both sides of the Capitol. As for government funding: It’s not looking stellar there, either. Schumer said in a floor speech last week that the Senate’s attempt to pass a package of three individual spending bills was slowed by Republican “poison pill amendments.†There’s been slim to no progress on that front since Congress narrowly averted a shutdown before the Oct. 1 deadline. Still, count Welch in the staying-positive camp. “I feel very confident in the Senate,†Welch said. "Any individual senator can slow things down, but the principles I think are widely shared on†both sides. Of course, senators are acutely aware that the timing on almost everything they do is subject to the will of the House. And given how things are going across the Capitol, that makes another stopgap bill — or a shutdown — seem all the more likely. “They've got to get the speakership issue figured out in the House, and then I hope we can get on those appropriation bills here,†Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said last week. “The more progress we can make on approps and the actual appropriations process, the more likely it is that we can avoid outcomes that nobody wants.†— Ursula Perano
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