President Joe Biden and top congressional leaders from both chambers don’t get together for routine chats, but as NBC News reported, the quintet’s latest face-to-face meeting is now just hours away.
President Joe Biden will host the top four congressional leaders at the White House to negotiate Tuesday as the Senate’s top Democrat warned of a potential partial government shutdown at the end of the week.
This is a story with several moving parts, and some Q&A might help add some clarity.
Wait, we’re having to talk about government shutdowns again?
I’m afraid so.
I thought congressional leaders worked out a plan weeks ago.
Not exactly. In mid-January, Congress approved a temporary spending measure — what’s known as a “continuing resolution” (or “CR”) — intended to give lawmakers more time to finish work on appropriations bills. Around the same time, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Mike Johnson also agreed to some topline spending numbers.
So what’s the problem?
The trouble is, the work on the appropriations bills has faltered, and the agreement on topline spending numbers didn’t amount to much: The next step involved filling in the gaps with substantive details, which is generally when the process starts breaking down.
What kind of timeline are we dealing with?
Under the two-tiered model that House GOP leaders insisted on, there are two deadlines, not one. The first comes this Friday (March 1), when funding would run out for the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs. The deadline for the rest of federal operations is a week later (March 8).
How difficult would it be to pass the appropriations bills before the deadlines?
In theory, it should be relatively straightforward. In fact, funding for the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs is generally considered far easier than spending on the Defense,…
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