A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.
Add $1.2 trillion in government spending bills to the short list of things where it’s fine to barely miss – horseshoes, hand grenades and taxpayer dollars.
The multi-act, epic saga of funding the government for the fiscal year that is nearly halfway over is finally at its end, but maybe not before funding lapses for much of the government after 11:59 p.m. ET Friday.
It’s not exactly a shutdown if lawmakers can pass the package close to on time, before the end of the weekend. Internal Revenue Service workers won’t be furloughed during tax season and border agents won’t be working without pay.
The asterisk of a temporary lapse in funding would be the drama-free result of parliamentary procedure rather than a pitched policy standoff – assuming everything goes according to plan.
Here’s what to know:
All indications are that the final departments of the federal government will get full-year funding in short order. It might not happen until over the weekend or early next week, however, which is after funding lapses.
Maybe. But not exactly. The temporary lapse in funding over the weekend for parts of the government would be so short that it would likely have a very limited impact on government operations.
Republicans in the House have made a very big deal about publishing text of bills a full 72 hours before they get final votes.
The 1,000-plus pages of text for this bill was put online just before 3 a.m. Thursday morning. If lawmakers were given 72 hours to read it, they would not be able to vote until 3 a.m. Sunday.
Instead, it appears House Speaker Mike Johnson will get…
Read the full article here
