Before President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress can enact much of their legislative agenda, they have to deal with some unfinished business — completing work on the current budget year’s spending bills. It’s a task that by all accounts is not going well. The current stopgap measure lasts through March 14. After that, without congressional action, there would be a partial government shutdown. Five weeks is an eternity when it comes to resolving spending bills in Washington. But Trump’s first weeks in office have escalated tensions between the two parties as the new administration reshapes agency priorities and dismantles existing programs without congressional approval. A look at where the talks stand: Republicans accuse Democrats of abandoning negotiations Republican and Democratic leaders of the two appropriations committees in Congress were holding spending bill talks in late January; aides said the two sides were committed to getting a deal done. But optimism has faded in recent days. “Obviously, the Democrats are not in a good place right now, so they walked away from talks. But it’ll have to resume,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said Thursday. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., gave a similar assessment, contending that comments by House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York and some of his colleagues made it seem as though they are “trying to set up some sort of government shutdown, which I think is very unfortunate. We were negotiating in good faith and trying to get the topline number, but so far as I know, they’ve been sort of unresponsive the last two days or so. So I hope we can get back to it.” Rep. Tom Cole, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said that he heard from Democratic lawmakers as recently as Thursday so he did not believe they were walking away from talks. “But, we’re not making the progress I would hope,” said Cole, R-Okla. Democrats dispute GOP leadership’s characterization Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the lead Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said “that is false” in response to the assertion that Democrats have withdrawn from negotiations. “The Democrats have made their offer. We have not walked away from the table,” DeLauro said. Jeffries told reporters that DeLauro “has been trying to get Republicans to respond to her for weeks.” “I’m hopeful that Republicans are actually willing now to sit down at the table and reach a spending agreement, in the best interest of the American people, not in the best interest of their billionaire donors,” Jeffries said. Tensions over topline spending levels Under terms of an agreement that former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., worked out with then-President Joe Biden, spending for defense and nondefense would increase by 1% for the current budget year, which began Oct. 1. That would bring the tallies to about $895.2 billion for defense and $780.4 billion for nondefense. Congress set the spending levels to grow below the rate of an inflation, at the insistence of Republicans, as part of a package that also suspended the debt limit so that the federal government could continue paying its bills. Democrats say an agreement is an agreement. “That is the path forward that will allow everyone to come together to reach a spending agreement that meets the needs of the American people,” Jeffries said. Republicans […]