Senate Republicans have largely coalesced around the end of January as their new government funding expiration date, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter who were granted anonymity to share information about ongoing negotiations.
Republicans are tentatively looking at a continuing resolution that would run until Jan. 30, which was a topic of discussion during a closed-door conference meeting Friday as members of both parties look for a path toward ending the government shutdown.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said that while Senate Republicans had mostly gelled around the date, there were still conflicting feelings within the conference, and conversations would continue.
The end date is longer than what appropriators had hoped for: They were pushing for a deadline in December to keep pressure on lawmakers to quickly reach a larger, full-year funding deal.
But House and Senate GOP leaders have been privately pushing for more time and were viewed as most likely to settle on a January date. Notably, the Jan. 30 timeline is one of the better options for House GOP leaders at this point, given that some fiscal hard-liners, who want to keep government programs running at flat funding levels, are pushing for a stopgap into November of next year.
