Stop me if you’ve heard this one before… the federal government is facing a shutdown. O.K., maybe not on par with the ‘boy who cried wolf,’ but yep, just two months after the last partial government shutdown ended, Congress is again struggling to meet the deadline for funding the government.
Recall that as part of the short-term agreement struck in mid-October, Congress gave itself until Jan. 15, 2014 to pass a budget BUT ONLY until Dec. 13 to reach a tentative deal on same at the committee level. Leading this monumental effort are Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Washington) and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin).
(And if you want to get politically technical, time is at an even greater premium because you have to allow for actually putting the plan/a bill together and rounding up the votes. Unfortunately, there’s no bill as yet on the table that could avert another shutdown.)
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This time around, the budget debate centers on spending levels for 2014 and ‘the sequester.’ Republicans want to hold down spending, while Democrats want to boost spending. (Oh my, alert the media.)
Well, it's Dec. 6, and despite weeks of talks the budget negotiations have barely crept forward. And Congress really only has five more days this month to do anything. Speaker John Boehner plans to adjourn the House for holiday recess next Friday. However, there may be little stomach on Capitol Hill for another shutdown showdown. The last 16-day standoff helped drive public approval of Congress to historic lows.
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With so little time to cut a deal, some lawmakers are talking about passing another stopgap spending bill to buy more time to negotiate… but not everyone's on board with that either. For example, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Kentucky) is adamant that he does not want another stopgap spending bill to fund the government past Jan. 15. There are also questions about whether the House could possibly get the votes to pass such a bill.
So what’s going to happen? The most likely scenario will be a deal announced sometime between today and Tuesday (which may be too late and necessitate calling special sessions of the House and Senate - which, trust me - WILL NOT happen). Upside: The deal won’t have to be voted on by the budget conference panel itself and will likely enjoy the advance blessing of Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, meaning it could proceed directly to the respective floors.
The package being crafted would be designed to spare the Pentagon -- but also education and medical research programs dear to Democrats -- from the sequester cuts looming as a result of the 2011 Budget Control Act. According to pundits, the most likely path is 1) Selling-off of government assets; 2) Hiking selected government fees; and 3) "Smart savings" achieved through cuts in other areas. It’s déjà vu all over again.
