House and Senate negotiators working on an omnibus spending plan have agreed to allocate $858 billion for defense and national security – the same amount expected to be authorized in the NDAA that will be released soon, according to CQ.

But talks have stalled on the non-defense side of the budget.

“I don’t think we’re closer,” Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the Senate’s top Republican appropriator, said after a lunch with President Biden and Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Va.). “I think if you look at the big picture, we’re not that far away, probably $25 billion away, $26 billion.”

Current government spending expires Dec. 16.

House Democratic leaders are preparing a full-year continuing resolution in case talks fall through, but that approach doesn’t have much support either.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently wrote to top Democrats that failure to pass an omnibus spending bill would do “significant harm to our people and our programs and would cause harm to our national security and our competitiveness,” as On Base reported.

DOD photo by Lisa Ferdinando