Government shutdown theater might be getting a curtain call before it really gets going for the 2021 season.
House and Senate leaders on Thursday announced they had reached a deal on a bill to fund the government into mid-February, opening the door for lawmakers to narrowly avoid a shutdown entering this weekend.
The agreement on a new stopgap spending measure set the House on a path to vote before the end of the day, though swift action still seemed uncertain in the Senate, where some Republicans have threatened to grind the government to a halt as they protest President Biden’s vaccine and testing mandates.
Both chambers must pass identical bills by midnight on Friday to avert a shutdown. Lawmakers from both parties have warned that a failure to fund the government could be disruptive, especially at a time when the country is responding to a new, potentially more dangerous variant of the coronavirus.
“If there is a shutdown, it will be a Republican, anti-vaccine shutdown,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the chamber floor, touting the fact that the new funding deal carries broad bipartisan support.
Yet a crop of Republicans led by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) signaled Thursday they still aren’t yet willing to back down in their effort to defund federal agencies carrying out Biden’s vaccine and testing policies.
“Nothing is different today from yesterday,” said Marshall, describing the conservative blockade as an attempt to protect “jobs” and “national security.”
The new funding proposal, known as a continuing resolution, covers federal operations into February 18 — at which point lawmakers either must adopt another short-term deal or complete their work on roughly a dozen longer-term appropriations bills that fund the government for the remainder of the 2022 fiscal year.
Democrats and Republicans also included as part of the stopgap another $7 billion in assisting Afghan evacuees. But they generally did not address a slew of unresolved policy issued that they had hoped to tackle as part of the continuing resolution, a reflection of the tense talks that delayed a vote on government funding for days.
“While I wish it were earlier, this agreement allows the appropriations process to move forward toward a final funding agreement which addresses the needs of the American people,” said Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.), the leader of the House Appropriations Committee.
Trump appointed judges block Biden vaccine mandates for federal health care workers.
The top Senate Republican appropriator, Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), later offered his blessings: “I’m pleased that we have finally reached an agreement on the continuing resolution. Now we must get serious about completing [fiscal year 2022] bills.”
Those fights entering February are likely to be fierce, as Democrats hope to deliver on Biden’s budgetary goals, spending greater sums in areas including health and education, while Republicans hope to whittle down those amounts and devote more resources to the Pentagon. Democrats and Republicans also have squared off on a host of policy items, including the fate of the Hyde Amendment, which blocks federal funding for abortion — a provision Democrats hope to scrap despite unwavering GOP objections.
They have one job, which they manage to FUBAR every year. The federal workforce is REALLY, REALLY tired of this.Report
From the Republicans’ perspective, that may be a feature and not a bug. Haven’t they found the memo trail that says moving BLM headquarters to Grand Junction, CO had the primary purpose of getting the senior DC people to quit?Report
Oh I know its how the Republican want to work, because the proper way – going to Congress and asking for a Reduction in Force (which requires Legislative direction) wouldn’t fly politically. They’d rather quietly nickel and dime the federal workforce into insolvency then have the actual national debate, backed by votes, on what we should and shouldn’t do for America.Report
This is what I keep referring to as the asymmetry of the Republicans being the revolutionary faction instead of a political party.
Everyone seems to have just accepted and made normal, the idea that the Republicans benefit from destroying a government agency’s ability to function, or that they benefit from the continuing pandemic or that they will benefit from a default.
This isn’t how political parties work, or have ever worked. Benefitting from chaos and instability is how insurrectionist factions work.
The asymmetrical advantage comes from the fact that they don’t want to achieve anything so they can’t be compromised with, and stalemate and gridlock works to their advantage.Report
Well, at least I get paid through February. But lets remember that no business ever runs this way.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/02/politics/government-shutdown-latest-continuing-resolution/index.htmlReport
Let me take this opportunity to once again say that the very concept of the debt ceiling is absurd.Report
Agreed.
Just like capitol punishment doesn’t deter murder, the debt ceiling doesn’t deter government spending without taxation.Report
Of course, it’s worse than that implies because Congress would only be deterring itself.
Congress can control debt by raising taxes or cutting spending, but that will make people unhappy, so instead it pretends to take action by setting a limit that is mathematically impossible to obey, given the budgets it has passed.
It’s a ludicrous abdication of responsibility.Report