Meeting Next Funding Deadline Won't Be Easy For Congress

The nation breathed a collective sigh of relief last week as Congress came together to pass a stopgap measure to keep government agencies operating. But it's a difficult path ahead, and members could be facing the very same shutdown scenario in just over a month.

There are 12 appropriations bills that fund the government. In recent years, Congress has most often resorted to bundling those all into one massive omnibus bill, but this, under the influence of the more conservative wing of the House Republican conference, the goal is to actually pass the bills individually.

The bipartisan continuing resolution (CR) the House and Senate passed last Thursday gives them until early March to do it.

"And even that is going to be a crowded schedule," said Tom Cole in an interview last week, "but the reality is we need to get them done."

Representative Cole (R-OK4), the number two appropriator in the House, says the critical first step was Speaker Mike Johnson and Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer agreeing on an overall spending cap of $1.66 trillion.

"Now that we’ve got a top line," explained Cole," as soon as we get these next lines, the 12 individual bills -- they’re called 302(b)s -- done, we’re negotiating bill by bill, line by line."

It's a tall order. The House isn't in session this week.

The new CR is simply an amended version of the one Congress passed in November; it's 'laddered,' meaning it contains two separate funding deadlines: March 1 for the four appropriations bills that fund the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Veterans Affairs, and Transportation; and March 8 for the eight remaining appropriations bills, which cover agencies like Defense. Homeland Security, Education, Labor, and others.

"And you’re going to get all of that done in 30 days? No way," said Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) in an interview last week.

Senator Mullin isn't against trying, but he says, realistically, the best thing Congress can do at this point is accept the 'fact' that FY 2024 is a lost cause and get to work on the appropriations bills for FY 2025.

"If we don’t start working on those," said Mullin, "we’re going to be in the same situation that we are now next year. So, at some point, you’ve got to call a duck a duck."

Passing a full-year continuing resolution is not out of the question, but many don't like it because not only does it freeze funding at the current level, but it doesn't allow for the implementation of any new programs or raises, which Cole says would be particularly bad for the military.

"A year-long CR would cost us around $40 billion in defense," said Cole. "We would lose the $28 billion increase we have, it would put it risk the five percent pay increase for men and women in uniform...it’s just a very dangerous world right now, this isn’t the time to freeze things in place."