Democrats want federal money for gun violence research. Republicans want to halt Syrian refugees.
And the two parties may be willing to trade green energy tax cuts for an end to the crude oil export ban.
That’s the state of play of behind-the-scenes negotiations on tax cut legislation and a $1.1 trillion, long-term spending bill that would fund the federal government until the end of fiscal year 2016.
“We are proffering back and forth,” Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday, after the Democrats sent a new spending offer to the GOP Wednesday night.
Democrats added a demand to the spending bill talks Thursday when they suddenly insisted that an agreement must include lifting a federal law preventing the Centers for Disease Control from studying the impact of gun violence.
“They want Democratic votes on a budget? That budget must allow the federal government to do research that is required to keep America safe,” Pelosi said.
The current law that Democrats oppose was enacted in 1996. Authored by then-Rep. Jay Dickey, of Arkansas, it prevents the CDC from spending federal funds “to advocate or promote gun control.”
But a string of mass shootings has emboldened Democrats to push Republicans to lift the ban, and it has suddenly become one of the main sticking points in the omnibus negotiations.
Congress is expected to clear a five-day funding extension on Friday, buying lawmakers a few more days to strike a spending deal. In addition to the spending legislation, Congress is eager to extend dozens of popular tax breaks.
Pelosi said she sees a possible deal in exchanging an end to the ban on crude oil exports for something Democrats want. Their wish list includes extending tax credits for renewable energy and indexing the child tax credit to inflation.
“I hope so,” Pelosi said when asked if the two parties can strike a deal on taxes. She called the GOP’s push to lift the oil export ban, “an act of desperation,” that was not originally part of the agreement.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said the negotiations are taking longer than expected because of the size and cost of the bill.
He wouldn’t provide details on the policy rider tradeoff, but said both sides will have to compromise.
“We’re not going to get everything we want in negotiations,” Ryan said. “The Democrats aren’t going to get everything they want in negotiations. But I believe that we will successfully complete these negotiations.”
