Congress

Congress Might Postpone a Partial Government Shutdown For One Week

Written by SK Ashby

We're currently four days away from a possible government shutdown and everything we currently know tells us Congress will pass a short continuing resolution before they pass a much longer continuing resolution.

According to a congressional source who spoke to CNN this morning, Congress is considering pushing back the shutdown deadline by one week, as if that will make any difference.

A source briefed on the talks told CNN over the weekend that lawmakers are considering taking up a one-week spending bill to avoid a partial government shutdown by Friday, a move designed to put off a major showdown until after former President George H.W. Bush's funeral proceedings (Congress will be out of session for part of the week because of it). [...]

Trump has so far signaled an openness to a short-term extension. The President told reporters aboard Air Force One that he is willing to extend the deadline for funding the federal government to avoid a government shutdown.

The latest word, according to scattered reports across social media, is that Congress could extend the deadline by two weeks rather than one.

That would ostensibly give them more time to, I don't know, agree to something or other. I mean, it's not as if another week is going to compel congressional Democrats to fully fund Trump's fantasy border wall.

Congressional Democrats already agreed to increase spending on border security, not including a wall, but Trump has threatened to shut down the government if he doesn't get funding for his wall.

Trump has not followed through on a single threat to shut down the government over wall funding in the past two years so I'm skeptical that he will now just few days before Christmas.

If Trump doesn't get funding for his border wall in the next few weeks while Republicans still control both chambers of Congress, he never will.