The Senate ends the year by pushing the most difficult issues to 2024

The Senate quietly ended its year on Wednesday by pushing many of the toughest issues to 2024. The Senate failed to provide aid to Ukraine. The country could not agree on a border policy plan. And a government shutdown is in the offing.

The fizzle at the finish guarantees that Congress will be mired in policy and budget battles as lawmakers battle for control of the House of Representatives and Senate in the November elections.

The biggest disappointment for leaders of both parties was the inability to reach an agreement to provide more military aid to Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, after the aid became tied up in Republican demands for strict new border controls.

It was a setback for Democrats, who had hoped that by keeping the Senate in Washington this week, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and majority leader, could force votes on a measure that would send tens of billions to Ukraine and would respond to pressure from Republicans. for changes in immigration policy. But a breakthrough failed to materialize.

Mr. Schumer said in an interview that he remained hopeful that a deal would be voted on quickly when the Senate returns next month. He cited greater participation in the talks by the Biden administration and a recognition by Republicans that Democrats are willing to make serious concessions to stem the flow across the southern border.

“I think Republicans have seen that we’re taking the border seriously, and that we’re willing to do things that maybe they thought we wouldn’t do,” he said.

Mr. Schumer said the key question for Republicans was whether opposition from Donald J. Trump, the Republican Party’s presidential frontrunner, would prevent them from making a deal, even as most Republicans acknowledged that helping Ukraine best approach was to confront Russia and a broader conflict.

“They have the looming specter of Donald Trump, who they know in their hearts has been not only irrational but vicious on this issue, and are trying to use it to appeal to the worst political instincts of the people,” Schumer said. He added that Republicans would face a choice between Mr. Trump and the “ghost of history looking down on them” if the United States were to abandon Ukraine.

The lack of a solution came as no surprise to Republicans, some of whom mocked Mr. Schumer for thinking he could outmaneuver them in a matter of days on an issue so important to their base as border security – especially considering that the Republican Party-led House Republicans left town last week for the holidays.

But Mr. Schumer and Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and minority leader, issued a joint statement saying they were “committed to addressing the needs at the southern border and helping allies and partners address serious to counter threats in Israel, Ukraine and the Indian Ocean. Pacific.”

Mr. McConnell also acknowledged Democratic movement on border policy, saying Wednesday that “there is no longer any disagreement that the situation at the southern border is untenable and that the Senate must act.”

After a flurry of legislation over the past two years with Congress under Democratic control, productivity in Congress fell sharply in 2023 under a divided government. The Democratic-led Senate was spared the internal power struggles that repeatedly paralyzed the Republican-led House, but important legislation was scarce.

“I don’t think the Senate has been nearly as productive as it could have been,” McConnell told reporters on Tuesday.

Mr. Schumer said Democrats deserved credit for preventing Republicans in Congress from undoing their achievements over the past two years and for averting budget chaos by forcing the Republican Party to make compromise deals on raising the debt limit and temporarily financing the government.

“We stopped them from doing the worst things,” he said.

But Congress only postponed what looms as a messy spending showdown by passing a relief bill in mid-November. Almost immediately upon their return next month, the House and Senate will face two staggered deadlines for funding the government, on January 19 and February 2.

With the focus on Ukraine, little progress has been made on the annual spending bills, and lawmakers from both parties are increasingly sounding the alarm about the dangers of cuts that would occur if an agreement could not be reached. But Speaker Mike Johnson, who was installed after Kevin McCarthy’s ouster in October, has indicated he might be willing to accept the cuts, a prospect that Schumer warned could lead to an election-year backlash.

“We have Senate Democrats, House Democrats and Senate Republicans on the same page,” he said. “Johnson will learn that it has to be bipartisan.”

It is unclear whether the threat of successive government shutdown deadlines will give the national security package talks the necessary momentum. Lawmakers will have just 10 days after returning to Washington to resolve a series of crucial disagreements, including the most fundamental question of how big the remainder of the government’s 2024 fiscal year budget should be. Congress also began contentious fights next year over federal aviation security policy and the renewal of a counterterrorism oversight policy.

A sweeping Pentagon policy bill was a rare bright spot for Congress this year. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed the bill in December, despite objections from conservative lawmakers that it left out a series of measures they had sought to curtail Pentagon programs that provide access to abortion, transgender health services and diversity training. The passage of the legislation continued Congress’ more than six-decade streak of approving military spending.

The Senate also managed in its final hours to overcome a nearly year-long protest by Alabama Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville, who had blocked the promotions of hundreds of senior military officials. Mr. Tuberville had demanded that the Pentagon reverse a policy that allowed military personnel who had to travel long distances to obtain abortions or other forms of reproductive health care to be released and reimbursed for their travel expenses.

On Tuesday, Mr. Tuberville allowed the last of the delayed promotions to go ahead without, Mr. Schumer said, and got “a little of what he asked for — just a lot of pain for military families.”