From Punchbowl News: More Government Shutdown Cowbell, Again

Five months into fiscal year 2024, and the Government Shutdown Shuffle is in full swing on The Hill as the cherry blossoms bloom in the district.

Punchbowl News:

The stalemate means a (partial) government shutdown is back on the table. We still don’t expect it to happen, but there’s definitely a chance. A low-impact shutdown next weekend seems possible. And on the first weekend of the NCAA tournament!

We have two points to make here. The first is that it’s five-and-a-half months into FY2024. That a potential government shutdown is still being discussed is mind-boggling. The two sides have known what the funding level for FY2024 would be since last May when the White House and then Speaker Kevin McCarthy inked the Fiscal Responsibility Act. It’s taken more than 10 months just to get to this point.

Secondly, there’s never been a government shutdown anywhere near this late in the fiscal year since the 1976 changeover to the current federal schedule (Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.) We couldn’t find one past mid-January, per the Congressional Research Service.

Besides the DHS hangup, the other contentious issues have been resolved, we’re told.

For example, the two sides were able to find agreement on U.S. aid for the Palestinians. Currently, such aid is funneled through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA. But after Israel alleged that a dozen UNRWA employees were involved in the Oct. 7 terror attacks by Hamas, the United States froze such aid.

Under the new bipartisan deal, U.S. aid to the Palestinians can’t be routed through UNRWA through at least March 2025, according to multiple GOP and Democratic sources. It must go through other organizations.

Timing issues: Thanks to this latest delay, Congress faces a real time crunch in avoiding a shutdown. House Republican leadership has vowed to give lawmakers 72 hours to review the minibus package before a floor vote.

If the bills are publicly released at some point today, the House can vote on Thursday — one day before the shutdown. That gives the Senate little time to clear this funding package. And Senate leaders have already said they expect this six-bill minibus to be more difficult to process than the first one.

All of which means that, at this point, Congress could stumble into a shutdown.