Congress

Congress Considers a One-Day Spending Bill

Written by SK Ashby

Congress has tentatively reached a deal to fund the federal government for what remains of fiscal 2018, but the problem is they've waited until the last possible second to release it.

It will be difficult to actually hold votes in both chambers to pass a funding bill before the Friday deadline so, to that end, they're considering a 24 hour continuing resolution.

Under this timetable, any single senator could cause a brief government shutdown under Senate rules and push work into the weekend. Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul has pointedly refused to rule out doing so.

Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said a very short continuing resolution could be necessary to avoid a shutdown.

"I could see a CR for a day," he told reporters.

It remains to be seen if a 24-hour (or longer) CR is necessary, but in any case the spending deal as it has been reported is actually quite good for Democrats considering that Republicans control the government.

The bill (the full text hasn't been released to the public as of this writing) reportedly includes $1.6 billion for border security, but that does not include Trump's fantasy wall or money for more agents. The money is designated for replacing existing fences and deploying more high-tech gadgets.

In exchange, the bill also includes initial funding for the Gateway tunnel project between New York and New Jersey and it will "improve the national background check system" although the details of that effort are not clear. The bill also includes more funding for the FBI's fight against Russian interference.

As for the rest of the government, I think it would be fair to describe the whole deal as a continuing resolution. There are no dramatic spending cuts, only spending increases.

Semantics aside, if this spending bill passes it will move us one step closer to the end of Paul Ryan's reign and he still hasn't achieved the overwhelming majority of his goals. He still hasn't privatized Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security.

The most conservative members of Congress including Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows have been blasting the spending deal in public and that's understandable because it includes virtually nothing for them. Republican leaders clearly don't want to ride into the midterm election with a radical policy agenda.