Here We Go Again…Another Government Shutdown?

As soon as Congress passed a continuing resolution until January 30^th, pretty much everyone in DC circled the date on their calendar as the next possible government shutdown.  However, at the time, both parties were committed to avoiding that scenario – even if it meant another continuing resolution for the legislation not yet finalized in time.  All that said, we are now on the eve of a government shutdown that has complexities – policy, politics, and parliamentary logistics – that did not necessarily emerge last year. 

Senate Democrats have committed to making changes to the budget for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) before allowing the recent funding package to move through the Senate.  While there are Republicans who would like to join them in some of those efforts (depending on what some of those changes are), the House of Representatives is not in session this week – and any change would require another vote in the House; an impossibility given the current schedule.  So, in short, changes to the bills are not possible this week if they are being done legislatively.

The problem here is that there really are not many options without sidelining the current DHS funding bill or allowing it to continue under a short-term continuing resolution of its own… opening the path for the remainder of the bills to pass. That being said, that route would also require some commitment from the White House for the changes policymakers are requesting, which has not yet happened. 

While Friday at midnight is not far away, there are meetings happening now to find a narrow solution that would avoid a government shutdown. However, the broader implications are worth noting – a government shutdown continues to be the ultimate solution for any policy or funding impasse (for both parties), and this is a trend that is growing in frequency. Even more frustrating is that appropriations remains of the most bipartisan processes in Congress, but it often seems to come back to the risk of a government shutdown. 

There is a lot to unpack on this current debate, and both parties will play an important role in finding the solutions they can agree on – we will soon see if those solutions will be negotiated during a government shutdown or not.