Congress is currently lurching through a sluggish summer session, but there’s some high-stakes drama just ahead. On September 30, annual appropriations for the federal government will run out. Last year, for the first time in forever, Congress managed to reach bipartisan agreement on most spending measures. But election-year jitters and the use of budget reconciliation by GOP leaders to bypass Democrats altogether have slowed the appropriations process to a crawl. There’s also lots of gamesmanship over the likely balance of power after the midterms and what that will mean for future spending policies.

The present situation would normally convince congressional leaders and the White House to agree on a stopgap spending bill (know as a CR, for “continuing resolution”) to cover all federal operations for which regular appropriations have not been passed, punting the decisions past Election Day. All the deferred decisions could be made when the dust settles, either during a “lame duck” session or perhaps even early next year. That’s the default inclination on Capitol Hill right now, as Politico reported:

Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday he plans to hold a House vote next week on a stopgap spending measure, one that would likely fund the government through the November midterm elections. …Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), a senior appropriator who is expected to become the No. 2 party leader next Congress, said earlier this week it made sense to punt funding till after the election.“This is around the time of year where everyone realizes we’re not going to get our appropriations bill by the end of the federal fiscal year end, so I think we should do the adult thing, which is to punt into the lame duck,”........

© Daily Intelligencer