Parties Dig in Ahead of Deadline to Prevent Shutdown

Spending authority for federal agencies funded through appropriations expires next Friday (March 14), an often-repeated situation of recent years with once again no solution in sight as what initially was months to reach as resolution ticks down to days.

Discussions on Capitol Hill over either regular appropriations bills or an extension through September 30 at current levels have broken down over Trump administration actions to refuse to spend money—including by canceling contracts and laying off federal employees—that Congress has appropriated for specific purposes. Democrats have insisted that any funding measure contain guarantees that funds will be used as directed while Republicans have refused out of support for the White House.

That threatens the escape route that Republican leaders in the House have followed in several similar situations: reaching compromises in which enough Democrats have joined with enough Republicans to prevent funding authority from lapsing. That resulted last year, for example, in a temporary extension from the October 1 start of the current fiscal year into December, and then the one that is about to run out.

Republicans have only a slim majority in the House, where a number of their members further refuse to vote for budget measures that cut into spending even more deeply than GOP leaders desire. The GOP margin in the Senate also is slim and Democrats could block a major budget bill there because it would need 60 votes to pass.

In contrast to several of the other recent standoffs, a funding lapse this time would hit all agencies unless they are self-funding—such as USPS and the TSP—or have advance appropriations or other types of accounts on which they could draw temporarily.

Otherwise, agency workforces again would be divided into those expected to continue working without pay and those who would be put on unpaid furloughs—although in both cases with a guarantee of back pay once funding is restored. The Trump administration has taken down the OMB page where agency “contingency” plans spelling that out have been posted for years, although those plans likely are little changed from last fall.

Meanwhile, Republicans on both sides of Congress have been pushing forward with budget “resolutions” laying out long-range spending and tax policies, to be followed by a “reconciliation” bill directing most congressional committees to recommend savings in the areas under their control.

For the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the House version calls for savings of $50 billion over 10 years. That likely could be achieved only through some combination of increasing required employee contributions to retirement, shifting more costs of health insurance onto enrollees, and devaluing retirement benefit for future retirees.

The use of the reconciliation vehicle is key because it requires only a simple majority vote in the Senate. Republicans there have taken a different approach in their budget resolution, anticipating several measures rather than just the one envisioned in the House.

The Senate version shows an increase in spending for programs under its counterpart to the House oversight committee, although that is because the Senate panel also has jurisdiction over homeland security spending, which would be in line for a substantial funding boost.

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