December 11, 2014 05:45 PM UTC

A Shutdown For Christmas? Hopefully Not, But...

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• by: Colorado Pols

FRIDAY UPDATE: FOX 31's Eli Stokols recaps:

Colorado’s House delegation split, with Rep. Ed Perlmutter of Golden one of 57 Democrats who ultimately voted yes…Fellow Democrats, Reps. Diana DeGette of Denver and Jared Polis, both voted against the legislation.

“The American public is sick of back-room deals made in order to perform Congress’s most fundamental job: keeping the government open and operating,” DeGette said in a statement. “I cannot support an omnibus appropriations bill that includes policy riders rolling back reforms to the banking system and allowing a ten-fold increase in campaign donations to political parties.

“Special treatment for the wealthy and influential should not be the price of avoiding a shutdown. The American people deserve better, and time is quickly running out for this Congress to deliver.”

Republican Senator-elect Cory Gardner of Yuma, who defeated Sen. Mark Udall last month after campaigning as a moderate, voted in favor of the spending proposal, as did Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora, who won reelection by a large margin in a competitive 6th Congressional District also by campaigning as a moderate conservative.

Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Grand Junction, also voted yes, while Rep. Doug Lamborn, the most conservative member of the delegation, voted no.

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UPDATE 7:35PM: "Cromnibus" appears headed for passage in the House by the narrowest of margins.

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UPDATE 5:45PM: It's getting late in the day, and still no deal:

WH needs 40 Dems to pass #Cromnibus. DeGette & Polis are nos. Perlmutter, who got a call from Sec. Donovan today, is undecided. #COpolitics

— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) December 12, 2014

CNN:

After debating a $1.1 trillion spending package that would fund the government through September, the House went into recess around 2 p.m. and hasn't returned, signaling that House leaders are scrambling to get votes for the package.

Both Republican and Democratic leaders are facing defections from members of their own party that threaten the passage of the bill…

But most of the attention is on Democrats, who are taking issue with policy provisions added to the bill addressing campaign finance reform and a key provision of the financial overhaul. President Barack Obama is personally making calls to Democrats, according to a White House official, after he released a statement earlier Thursday backing the spending package.

Whee! We'll update through the evening as needed.

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UPDATE: AP's Matthew Brown has more on wrangling over the sage grouse as negotiations continue today:

Critics said the rider would hasten the sagebrush-dependent bird’s demise, by forestalling work to shore up its population across a range that spans 11 states and two Canadian provinces.

Their hopes that the rider could be stripped out of the spending bill were bolstered when some Democrats came out in opposition to the bill’s environmental provisions.

But U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, a Colorado Republican set to join the Senate in January, said the rider was likely to stay intact — and even get carried over for future years.

“Once you have a policy rider that’s been approved in legislation, the odds of it remaining significantly increase,” said Gardner, who sponsored unsuccessful stand-alone legislation to delay sage grouse protections. [Pols emphasis]

So…the brinksmanship works for Cory Gardner. Noted.

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Politico reports on the shaky deal coming together–or coming apart, depending on who you talk to–to fund most of the federal government for most of the coming year. 

The margin could be razor thin, but House Republicans think they will pass their funding bill before the government shuts down Thursday.

Top aides and lawmakers on the GOP whip team privately say they believe between 150 and 175 Republicans will support the $1.1 trillion, nine-month government funding bill. And senior House Democrats predict that some of their members will help make up for the Republican defections to get the bill across the finish line…

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and his staff have been in contact with Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) throughout the whole process, despite Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) public proclamation that Democrats were worried about provisions tucked into the bill that would loosen Wall Street regulations and campaign finance laws.

In fact, the deal to jack up donation limits to national party committees was negotiated by top aides to a leading Democrat and Republican: Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

CNN reports, the campaign finance provision isn't the only problem House Democrats are learning about belatedly in this last-minute, must-pass, 1,600-page piece of legislation:

The top concerns from Democrats center on a proposal to ease banking regulations in the Dodd-Frank law and a measure that would allow wealthy donors to give considerably more money to the political parties.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said the provisions were "destructive to middle class families and to the practice to our democracy" and demanded they be stripped out of the bill. Pelosi's position is critical because House Republicans need Democratic support for the measure to pass.

Though Republicans hold a significant majority in the House, Speaker John Boehner is expected to lose anywhere from 40 to 60 conservatives in his party who oppose the bill because it doesn't block the President's immigration executive action. Democrats will need to provide votes to offset those losses, setting up the sort of political brinksmanship that has become typical in Washington.

The Grand Junction Sentinel's Gary Harmon reports on local plums slipped in for the oil and gas industry:

A rider in the $1.1 trillion measure being patched together in the House would prevent listing the greater sage-grouse as endangered and muddy the listing of the Gunnison sage-grouse as threatened.

The rider was sought by Western lawmakers who say they fear that listings of the birds would harm fragile rural economies that depend on energy development.

Environmental organizations took differing tacks, with one decrying the GOP-led effort to hinder listings of the birds and another saying that conservation efforts should take priority over listing decisions.

What happens next? As usual that's tough to say, although all sides are in agreement that nobody wants to be held responsible for shutting down the federal government two weeks before Christmas. But if Republican House Speaker John Boehner can't hold his caucus together, House Democrats will be needed–and that could endanger the lobbyist-driven giveaways tacked on to this mandatory bill.

We'll update when the music stops and the dash for the chairs begins.