House Republicans scheduled a conference call for later Monday night to discuss their next steps.  The spending proposals contain additional disaster relief money needed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to refill depleted coffers.  However, the emergency disaster funding only applies to the new fiscal year beginning Saturday, after FEMA indicated that it had enough money left to get through the rest of the current fiscal year.  Democrats and Republicans were at an impasse over a GOP demand to cut spending elsewhere to offset any increased disaster relief funding in the current fiscal year.  A FEMA statement Monday said updated estimates showed that the agency's Disaster Relief Fund has about $114 million left that "could be fully exhausted by the end of the week." Previous estimates had the money running out as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said White House budget director Jack Lew told him that FEMA's funding will last through the rest of the current fiscal year.  Reid and other Senate Democrats depicted the agreement as a victory over House Republicans who they said had needlessly held up the disaster relief funding by demanding unprecedented spending offsets for emergency aid.  "It is hard to see how the House Republicans could reject this proposal," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, noting the strong bipartisan vote in the Senate.  Last week, the Republican-led House passed a short-term spending measure for the first seven weeks of the new fiscal year that includes increased disaster relief funds in the wake of Hurricane Irene, Tropical Storm Lee, wildfires and tornadoes this year.  Under the House measure, called a continuing resolution, FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers would get more disaster relief funds for the end of the current fiscal year and the start of the new fiscal year.
The Senate on Monday night reached a bipartisan agreement intended to end a dispute over disaster relief spending that threatened to cause a partial shutdown of the government at the end of the