Congress is beginning to wrap up their work in preparation for their August break. Later this week, House members are expected to leave until after Labor Day. The Senate is scheduled to be in session next week, but they could decide to wrap up sooner. Regardless, lawmakers will be leaving DC with no real movement toward resolving the bipartisan gulf over sequestration.
House and Senate appropriation committees have completed work on all 12 spending bills in their respective chambers. That is an accomplishment that has escaped Congress in recent years. But despite the committees’ efforts to advance appropriations bills through the committee process, House and Senate leaders have had a tough time bringing those bills to the floor for consideration due to partisan positions that collectively ended the process in mid-July.
When lawmakers return to the Capital after Labor Day, they will have only about three legislative weeks before the October 1st start to the federal fiscal year to reach a funding agreement that would stave off a partial government shutdown. In other words, timing is tight, the stakes are high, and appropriators are frustrated. There is no doubt that a continuing resolution (CR) will be necessary but yet there is no agreement on how long a CR will run, or whether or not we will see the two sides come together to negotiate a budget deal like the one we saw in 2012 to stave off sequestration.
