Washington (AFP) - Lawmakers were scrambling Wednesday to complete work on a sweeping $1.7 trillion spending package before a massive winter storm expected to unleash chaos on airports and roads.
The government would run out of funding if Friday's deadline passed with no agreement, although the threat of a damaging festive shutdown is only theoretical, since Congress can pass a stop-gap deal to keep the lights on until January.
Senators hope to approve the package -- covering the financial year ending in September 2023 -- before the end of the day, sending it to the House of Representatives for a rubber stamp on Thursday.
"We must finish our work before the deadline of Friday midnight, but in reality I hope we can vote on final passage much sooner than that, even as early as tonight," the upper chamber's Democratic majority leader Chuck Schumer said on the floor Wednesday.
"There is no reason for the Senate to wait, and plenty of reasons to move quickly before a potential blizzard makes travel hazardous for members, their staff, and families right before the Christmas season."
The 4,155-page legislation is known as an "omnibus" package because it is crammed with items from members' wish lists that have little or nothing to do with the government funding.
One of the headline items is $45 billion in economic and military aid for Ukraine -- which is approaching a year of conflict since Russia's full-scale invasion began.
Other add-ons include a bill tightening loosely-worded election law, a measure permitting students from military academies to defer their service to play professional sports and an insurance package for grounded airlines in the event of a "hostile nuclear detonation."
The package is the last significant piece of business on the agenda before the 117th Congress wraps and new faces arrive in January.
The 118th Congress switches from one-party control to divided government, with the Democrats keeping the Senate but ceding the House to the Republicans.
House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy is calling on the party to vote against the package, arguing that members will have more sway in negotiating the size and scope of federal spending when the lower chamber flips in the new year.
A group of incoming House Republicans have even threatened to block future legislation from any of the party's senators who vote for the funding package.
But McCarthy and the hardline right wing of the House group is largely being ignored by Senate Republican leaders and around half of the rank and file.
"The reality is this kind of chest thumping and immaturity doesn't instill confidence in their ability to lead," Republican Senator Kevin Cramer told The Hill.
