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Just a few months after the U.S. experienced the longest government shutdown in its history, Congress is once again facing a looming deadline that could spark a new crisis. With less than a month remaining, lawmakers must act swiftly to avoid another shutdown that could leave millions of Americans without pay.
In Washington, the clock is ticking towards January 30, the date by which both the House and Senate must pass a budget to ensure the continued funding of government operations. Should they fail to reach an agreement, the nation could find itself in a repeat of last October’s turmoil.
Last November, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers managed to temporarily avert disaster by passing a compromise package of three spending bills. Signed into law on November 12, this stopgap measure effectively postponed any further crisis, but only until now.
Despite the ongoing political discord that often characterizes Capitol Hill, leaders from both parties have expressed a desire to prevent another shutdown from occurring. The memories of October’s protracted and contentious budget battle remain fresh, and few are eager to relive that experience anytime soon.
Is another government shutdown likely?
With the bitter political fighting in Washington, it’s definitely possible. But leadership on both sides of the aisle say they don’t want a repeat of October anytime soon.
“I don’t want to see another government shutdown,” Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, a leading Democratic figure, told Politico. “I’ve had enough of them.”
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said he has spoken to the White House and confirmed that the GOP is on the same page.
“No doubt, the administration wants to avoid a shutdown, and they’re clearly sending the message that we need to get regular order appropriations moving,” Tillis told Politico.
The Hill reports that some rank and file members are less hopeful.
Rep. Kevin Kiley told The Hill earlier this month that Congress is “never especially good at, you know, getting these things done on time.”
“It was especially problematic that the House wasn’t even here for two months,” Kiley said. “That’s time that we could have actually been working on the appropriations process in earnest to have bipartisan appropriations bills ready to go.”
Were the last budget bills bipartisan?
Members of the House of Representatives returned to Washington after nearly eight weeks out of session and voted 222 to 209 to pass the bill in November, after conflicting demands from the Republican side and solid Democratic opposition kept a deal out of reach, frustrating leadership.
The Senate passed the bill a day earlier after eight members of the Democratic caucus joined Republicans in supporting the measure to avoid a 60-vote filibuster. Eight senators broke ranks with the Democrats after reaching the conclusion that Republicans would not bend on using the measure to continue the expiring health care tax credits.
Why was the government shut down last time?
The big issue at the heart of last year’s shutdown was healthcare. Subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, often referred to as Obamacare, were set to expire and Republicans at the helm of both chambers had little interest in reviving them.
Democrats dug their heels in, refusing to vote for a bill that didn’t include an extension of the subsidies, which were used by millions of Americans. After 43 days, a compromise was reached: Democrats wouldn’t stand in the way of the spending bills if House Speaker Mike Johnson promised a floor vote on reviving the subsidies.
Democratic leaders say the bill must come up this week, the first week Congress is back in session after the new year, under the rules of the House.
What’s on the agenda?
Democrats are planning to make a public show of the subsidies vote, hoping to use votes against them as political fodder to oust House Republicans in the midterms later this year to retake the chamber.
But even if enough Republicans vote with Democrats to advance them, there’s no guarantee the issue will even be taken up in the Senate. That could anger Democrats all over again, raising the pressure in Washington.
Congress also has a new problem to deal with. Over the weekend, President Donald Trump authorized strikes on Venezuela that captured the country’s sitting president, Nicolás Maduro.
Maduro, whom the U.S. doesn’t recognize as a legitimate leader, was flown to New York to stand trial in the U.S. for a drug running conspiracy.
But the Venezuelan strikes have raised questions about the president’s authority to conduct military actions without approval from Congress.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune are in the political crosshairs of their own party members, who want answers about whether Congress should reassert its role in military actions.
A vote in the senate to limit Trump’s war powers in Venezuela had been in the works for weeks before the January strikes, but has become an overnight priority and will now serve as a test of the party’s loyalty to Trump.
