Here we go again.
By Tara Golshan Mar 12, 2018, 11:00am EDT
Without an appetite to actually legislate in the midterm election year, Congress still has a job to do: keep the government open.
Lawmakers have to pass a spending bill by midnight March 23 or the government will run out of money and shut down — again.
The government has already shut down twice this year. The first shutdown came in January and lasted for three days, during a standoff over the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Then in February, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) effectively shut down the government himself, this time only for a few hours overnight, in a stand against a deal negotiated by congressional leaders that would bust the government budget caps on domestic and military spending that have been in place since 2013.
Now it’s government shutdown season again.
Having kicked down any permanent solution to government spending since September 2017, and currently on their fifth short-term spending bill, Congress appears to be working toward a more permanent funding package to carry them through to the start of the new fiscal year on September 30.
Already there’s been some head-butting between the parties. Republicans are trying to slip in conservative priorities — like defunding Planned Parenthood — and Democrats are pushing for a liberal spending agenda, prioritizing non-defense spending programs. While Democrats don’t have control of either chamber, they can block funding through a filibuster in the Senate. Republicans need at least nine Senate Democrats to sign on to their spending agenda for it to pass. Meanwhile, there’s still a big question mark over what the White House will sign on to. Over the weekend, President Trump called for the spending bill to defund “sanctuary cities,” which Democrats will almost certainly oppose.
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