UPDATE, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024: This afternoon, President Joe Biden signed the last-minute funding bill to keep the federal government operational through March 14, 2025. The U.S. Senate approved the slimmed-down bill in the very early morning hours today, following House passage Friday evening. Although the final passage and presidential signature came after Uncle Sam technically ran out of money to keep all his offices open, since the fiscal fail was on a Saturday there will be no practical effects. The continuing resolution was the final vote of the 118th Congress of the United States. And with that, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year to all.
Will we see a repeat this holiday season of the pre-Christmas-2018-to-mid-January-2019 longest-ever federal government shutdown?
You're a mean one, Mr. Continuing Resolution Killer Grinch. Or should I say Grinches.
Earlier this week, it appeared as if a compromise, bipartisan deal had been reached to pass another continuing resolution that would keep the federal government funded into mid-March 2025. If Congress doesn't act by midnight Friday, Dec. 20, many government operations will be closed, likely beyond the holidays.
A shutdown of Uncle Sam's operations became more likely after president-elect Donald J. Trump and his new BFF (or until he angers or upstages Trump) Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and unelected co-leader of the unofficial, totally advisory creation Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), trash talked the funding deal.
That shook Republicans on Capitol Hill, who immediately backed away from the short-term federal funding proposal. To be honest, many in the GOP already had doubts due to the wide array of spending included in the 1,547-page measure. Trump's and Musk's remarks just underscored their fiscal concerns.
The incoming 47th president told friendly media that the fiscal "fight starts now" over the billions of dollars in spending that had been added to the continuing resolution, rather than waiting until he is sworn in next month. Musk used his social media platform X (neé Twitter) to also argue that the 1,547-page document is full of "pork."
Among the add-ons were $110.4 billion in disaster aid for natural disasters in 2023 and 2024, as well as $21 billion in disaster relief for farmers and $10 billion in economic assistance for farmers, along with a one-year extension of the farm bill.
There also was a commitment of federal funds to pay the entire cost of rebuilding Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed in March after being hit by a cargo ship.
The funding measure also included money to give members of Congress their first pay raise since 2009.
Trump's vice president, JD Vance, issued a statement via social media that underscored the political reasons behind opposition to the funding bill. He wrote, in part, —
"Congress is considering a spending bill that would give sweetheart provisions for government censors and for Liz Cheney. The bill would make it easier to hide the records of the corrupt January 6 committee—which accomplished nothing for the American people and hid security failures that happened that day. This bill would also give Congress a pay increase while many Americans are struggling this Christmas.
Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch. If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration? Let’s have this debate now. And we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want."
So, House Speaker Mike Johnson scrapped the last-minute measure late Wednesday.
And we're all awaiting the answer to what happens now?
The short answer is nobody really knows. (Quick aside: Based on Trump's first term, get ready for this to be a frequent answer when he resumes occupancy of the Oval Office.)
Congressional leaders are huddling on Capitol Hill today , trying to find a way to avert a pre-holiday shutdown. CNN has reported that Republican leaders are hoping to craft a “clean” continuing resolution and “clean” increase of the U.S. debt limit, doing away with the traditional Christmas-tree legislative approach Congress has used over the many, many years to push programs into law as unrelated additions to must-pass bills.
I agree that clean, specifically focused bills are preferable. But that takes work. And it takes work well before a recess or the end of a Congressional session. Unfortunately, I learned way back in the 1980s when I worked for a Representative and then the Ways and Means Committee itself, pre-planning has never been strong trait of federal lawmakers.
And so we wait, and hope pre-Christmas 2025 is not a replay of the same time period six years ago.
Shutdown déjà vu: On Dec. 22, 2018, the federal government closed when lawmakers could not agree on funding. When an agreement was finally reached the following, the reopening of Uncle Sam's offices meant the end of the longest federal government shutdown — 35 days — in history.
I bring this up now because Trump was president during that pre-Christmas-2018-into-January-2019 shutdown. His demand for more money to build his still unfinished U.S.-Mexico border wall was a factor in that closure.
Will the current Congress, which has a slim GOP majority in the House and equally narrow Democratic one in the Senate, be able to reach a deal that they and Trump/Musk/Vance can support?
Or will the impasse drag out over the Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year holidays, awaiting Trump's Jan. 20, 2025, arrival and GOP majorities in both legislative chambers to mark the first victory of his second term?
To repeat the earlier answer, nobody really knows.
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