With the Christmas season upon Washington, lawmakers are racing against the clock to pass a funding bill before a government shutdown. The threat of disrupting holiday festivities appears to be the only motivator for urgency, as political dynamics make reaching an agreement challenging.
Washington is a town that loves its holiday season traditions. The White House has its annual Christmas party, where attendees line up for their status-affirming photographs with the president. The National Zoo is illuminated for the enjoyment of families and adults alike with spiked hot cocoa. And over on Capitol Hill, the legislative branch’s members scramble to make sure Congress keeps the lights on through the new year. Unless Congress passes a funding bill before 12:01 a.m.
Friday, the federal government will run out of money, prompting a decidedly unmerry shutdown. Outside a few Grinches, nobody in Washington wants to see that happen at Christmas. And yet it’s only the threat of ruining the holidays that ever seems to prompt any sort of urgency from lawmakers. On one hand, Republicans have little reason to pass the kind of massive omnibus bills we’ve seen in Decembers past to fully fund the government through the end of the fiscal year. The GOP leadership knows that Republicans will control the White House and the Senate next month. With just a little patience and a continuing resolution locking in current spending levels until March, they’ll be able to entirely box out Democrats on spending decisions. But on the other hand, the core dynamics at play in the Capitol are the same we’ve seen for the last two years, meaning getting through the holidays is still easier said than done. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., knows his team will be blamed for any shutdown versus the White House and the Democrat-controlled Senate. He has only a handful of Republican votes to spare because a sizable number are opposed to any short-term spending bills at all. That means Johnson will need help from across the aisle to get the two-thirds majority required to circumvent his own members and bring a bill to the floor — but this time, House Democrats have a wish list of their ow
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