December is usually a pretty stressful time in Washington. For years, Congress has spent the last few days before its Christmas recess scrambling to pass some kind of spending bill that will prevent a federal government shutdown. But for once, the halls of the Capitol will be quiet — a little too quiet.
That’s because this year Congress decided to punt on most of its to-do list until the new year. In doing so, lawmakers saved their precious vacation time and, in the eyes of some conservatives, prevented another mad dash to spend money on the way out the door. But let’s be real: All they’ve done is merely delay that dash. What awaits Congress after the holidays is a very, very stressful return to reality.
What awaits Congress after the holidays is a very, very stressful return to reality.
The biggest bit of this procrastination comes courtesy of the “laddered” short-term spending bill that passed in November. Thanks to a bit of sleight of hand from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., there are two spending tranches, each with its own deadline. The first tranche covers items funded in the annual Agriculture, Energy and Water, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, and Transportation-HUD spending bills. Without either another continuing resolution or yearlong appropriations passing both houses of Congress, the money for those parts of the federal government will run out on Jan. 19, forcing a partial government shutdown.
Notably, the House has opted to peace out of Washington until Jan. 9, leaving just eight working days between its return and potential chaos. That’s a far cry from the timeline that Johnson laid out back when he first became speaker, which foresaw shepherding all 12 appropriations bills through the House before December. Those bills that have passed still need to be negotiated with the Democratic-controlled Senate; the upper chamber is understandably dead set on preserving the higher top-line spending rates that President Joe Biden and…
Read the full article here