President Biden hosted the top four congressional leaders in the Oval Office on Tuesday to discuss a path forward on government funding and Ukraine aid. “A shutdown would damage the economy significantly, and I think we all agree to that, and we need a bipartisan solution,” President Biden said at the beginning of the meeting. The first of two government funding deadlines is Friday at midnight, which would affect the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Transportation, Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development as well as the FDA and military construction projects. The rest of government agencies will run out of funding on March 8 absent congressional action. Senate Democrats and Republicans are on the same page, with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) voicing his support Monday for “clean” appropriations bills that avoid “poison pills.” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), however, is facing pressure from hardliners in his conference to put up more of a fight for conservative policy wins, but he told reporters on the way to the White House he was confident Congress would prevent a shutdown. It’s increasingly likely that a fourth continuing resolution (CR) will be needed to buy lawmakers more time to work out full-year funding. Some conservatives are pushing for a long-term CR to cover the rest of the fiscal year because doing so would trigger automatic spending cuts if appropriations bills are not passed by April, as agreed to in the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Regardless, Speaker Johnson will have to rely on Democratic votes to pass any funding bills in the House. President Biden also used the meeting to make the case for additional aid for Ukraine and Israel. The Senate approved a bipartisan national security supplemental bill early this month, but the House has yet to act on it as a sizeable chunk of Republicans have grown opposed to any additional funding for Ukraine. “I think the consequences of inaction every day in Ukraine are dire,” the president warned. #potus #biden #whitehouse #congress #governmentshutdown #cspan - @cspanofficial