With only five days left before a seven-week summer recess, Congress will at least try to keep up appearances. The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to complete work on the final two of the 12 annual spending bills needed to fund the government for FY 2017. Meanwhile, the full House is set to vote on its FY 2017 Interior-Environment spending bill, which would be the fifth bill to pass the House this year.
By the time Congress reconvenes in September, there simply will not be enough time left to complete work on all of the regular spending bills before the new fiscal year begins on Oct. 1. To avoid a politically deadly government shutdown one month before the elections, some kind of stopgap spending measure, known as a Continuing Resolution (CR), will need to be approved. House Conservatives have expressed concerns about a short-term CR.
On the Senate side of the Hill, the upper body’s rejection of a procedural vote on the FY 2017 Defense spending bill last Thursday may signify the final nail in the coffin for the regular FY 2017 appropriations process, as Democrats rebel and talk increasingly turns to staving off a government shutdown with a stopgap measure. Regardless, he Defense spending bill is up, but the chamber could also pivot to take action on the FAA bill or the final version of a bill to fight opioid addiction. The House approved the opioid conference report on Friday.