EXCLUSIVE: The tumultuous two years of the 118th Congress will likely be capped by another impasse over government spending.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., reported to Fox News Digital that Republicans are unlikely to move to launch discussions on federal funding for fiscal year 2025 in the new year.

But he reiterated his wishes that House Republicans would fight against consolidating the 12 annual appropriations bills into one large “omnibus” package, creating a possible showdown with Senate Democrats.

“The ideal scenario would be that we get an agreement for the remainder of the fiscal year,” Scalise said.

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House Majority Leader Steve Scalise suggested he wants Congress to sort out fiscal 2025 funding before President-elect Trump takes office, so he can focus on fiscal issues. news. (Getty Images)

He discussed the strains on national security if Congress were to simply extend funding levels for fiscal 2024.

“When we think about defense financing, it costs us money to have short-term financing bills when we can’t do long-term procurement, to buy the type of defense systems at long range that we need to compete with China,” Scalise said. “China doesn’t operate on short-term spending, nor should we.”

Before the September recess, House Republicans and Senate Democrats agreed to expand funding levels for fiscal year 2024 through what is known as a continuing resolution (CR) to avoid a partial government shutdown at the end of the fiscal year on September 30.

This bought the congressional negotiators until December 20 to conclude an agreement.

At the time, several supporters of President-elect Donald Trump demanded that the CR enter the new year in hopes that a new Republican administration would take the reins, something that was opposed by senior Republican lawmakers and conservative hawks. national security.

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Scalise raised concerns that an extension of clean funding from last year’s levels could put the United States behind China in new military technologies. Pictured is Chinese President Xi Jinping. (Xie Huanchi/Xinhua via Getty Images)

If Republicans win the House of Representatives in addition to the Senate and the White House, Trump will have a say in how the Republican-controlled Congress handles spending in the fall of next year. A number of House races remain undecided days after Tuesday’s general election.

Scalise also cited several other priorities, like the border crisis and extending tax cuts, which will occupy much of the start of Trump’s term.

However, when it comes to this year’s negotiations, the two sides are still far apart.

House Republicans have accused Senate Democrats of slowing down the process without passing any of their own spending bills, aiming to force the Republican Party to swallow a year-end “omnibus” with spending excessive and little transparency.

Democrats in turn criticized House Republicans’ spending bills, several of which passed the House, calling them draconian cuts and conservative policies deemed “unsustainable.”

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has not yet ruled out the possibility of an omnibus bill this year. (Reuters/Cheney Orr)

“We have a lot of conversations to have with our members about the best approach,” Scalise said. “When we left, we had already passed over 70 percent of the government funding bills through the House, and the Senate had not passed any of them.”

“We’re trying to get deals on individual bills. That’s why the House has done our job…I hope we can start getting those deals when we get back.”

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Fox News Digital reached out to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to see if he was planning an omnibus, which he inaugurated in the Senate almost every year he was majority leader, at the end of this year.

If a deal is not reached by December 20, the country could face a partial government shutdown just weeks before the new presidential administration takes office.