Funding fight is likely to eat up Senate’s schedule

A full-scale battle over the passage of a short-term spending plan is likely to consume all of the Senate's attention by Tuesday afternoon next week, Senate leadership aides told The Hill on Friday.

The Senate is scheduled to take up the Patent Reform Act as well as two judicial nominees on Monday, but aides said those matters could be sidetracked by debate over proposals for a continuing resolution to fund the government.

House leadership late Friday unveiled a two-week CR that would cut about $4 billion in spending on items that many Democrats have already agreed should be eliminated. To make the savings, the spending plan would rescind earmarks and cut programs President Obama also eliminated in his 2012 budget proposal.

House Republicans operate under a rule that demands 72 hours of open viewership for any piece of legislation before it can be voted on. Under that rule the House could hold a vote on the stopgap measure as early as Monday night.

The question of how that bill fares in the Senate depends partially on where House Republicans make the cuts.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) spokesman on Friday released a statement with a positive reaction to the expected House Republican stopgap measure, but that was before the details had been unveiled.

If Republicans keep the cuts mostly to earmarks and other expenditures opposed by conservative Democrats, senators such as John Tester (D-Mont.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and others may be inclined to support it, further strengthening the GOP’s hand.