{"id":29494,"date":"2018-09-03T21:00:07","date_gmt":"2018-09-03T21:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/09\/03\/as-lawmakers-return-to-work-shutdown-fears-loom\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:23:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:23:22","slug":"as-lawmakers-return-to-work-shutdown-fears-loom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2018\/09\/03\/as-lawmakers-return-to-work-shutdown-fears-loom\/","title":{"rendered":"As lawmakers return to work, shutdown fears loom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 In four weeks, lawmakers could be heading into the midterm elections with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2018\/08\/23\/senate-passes-675-billion-defense-budget-bill-with-hopes-of-avoiding-funding-lapse-next-month\/\" target=\"_blank\">a newly adopted federal budget<\/a> and a sense of pride for finishing their work on time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Or they could be heading home with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2017\/08\/30\/how-will-a-continuing-resolution-hurt-the-military-mccain-and-reed-ask-mattis\/\" target=\"_blank\">a short-term budget extension<\/a> and a lot of angry voicemails from Pentagon leaders complaining about their long-term budget plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Or they could be stuck in town dealing with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2018\/01\/22\/senate-reaches-deal-to-end-government-shutdown\/\" target=_blank>a partial government shutdown<\/a>, a potential political disaster as voters head to the polls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Given the stakes, the appropriations issue will dominate Congress\u2019 September session. Party leaders have said in recent days they are cautiously optimistic that they can finish a substantial portion of the work by the Sept. 30 deadline.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2018\/08\/23\/senate-passes-675-billion-defense-budget-bill-with-hopes-of-avoiding-funding-lapse-next-month\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"209\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/4569563.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Senate passes $675 billion defense budget bill, with hopes of avoiding funding lapse next month<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Congressional leaders are optimistic they can avoid a budget extension or partial government shutdown to start the new fiscal year.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of course, they have been optimistic in past years, too, and usually unsuccessful. Congress has passed just one of its 12 annual appropriations measures on time in the last eight years (the Veterans Affairs budget for fiscal 2017) and hasn\u2019t finalized all of its appropriations work on time since fiscal 1997.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Senate lawmakers in August did manage to advance a complicated \u201cminibus,\u201d including money for the departments of defense, health and human services, labor and education, setting up the chance for those agencies to see their budget\u2019s finalized on time this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the move puts Congress \u201con a pathway to avoid an omnibus or any kind of drama associated with the end of the fiscal year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Lesser of two evils<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When lawmakers have been unable to meet budget deadlines, they have typically adopted a continuing resolution to extend existing spending levels until a full-year funding deal can be reached.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Defense Department officials have long complained those stopgap budget measures hurt their procurement schedules and new program starts, since they delay anticipated funding increases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Congress sees those short-term fixes as preferable to the alternative: another government shutdown. Funding fights have forced two short shutdowns this year, but also shuttered federal offices for nearly three weeks in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Throughout the summer, President Donald Trump has hinted that he may force a partial government shutdown if Democrats don\u2019t go along with his plans of increased funding for a security wall along the southern U.S. border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Congressional Republicans have tried to downplay those threats and keep both sides on finding a final compromise in the next few weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve got a month to go, and my concern right now is getting the House back, where we can start working face-to-face and try we can resolve some differences between our bills,\u201d said Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard C. Shelby, R-Ala., adding that an impasse is \u201clooming out there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate\u2019s Defense Appropriations subcommittee and Senate\u2019s No. 2 Democrat, warned Trump that such a move would symbolize Washington dysfunction and alienate midterm voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI don\u2019t think the president understands the damage that would be done if he shuts down the government over any issue, let alone the border wall,\u201d Durbin said. \u201cIf he is foolish enough to do that and the Republican leadership can\u2019t convince him otherwise, there will be a price paid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Let\u2019s make a deal<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There have been staff-level negotiations on spending bills in recent weeks, but lawmakers made clear nothing would be final until the House returns from its recess next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At least one package in the queue: the Energy-Water\/Legislative Branch appropriations package could be voted on in coming days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Military Construction\/Veterans Affairs budget bill has stalled over a $1.6 billion funding gap, which White House officials want covered through other programming cuts and Democrats want covered with emergency spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe think we have a way, but we haven\u2019t crystalized it with the other side yet,\u201d Shelby said Tuesday, without offering further details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The defense appropriations bill is unlikely to move forward until most of those domestic spending issues are settled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When the House returns, House Speaker Paul Ryan expects the focus to be on three \u201cminibus\u201d packages, according to his spokesperson, and for the House to go to conference with the Senate on its package of defense appropriations with spending for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Republicans have expressed skepticism about the Senate\u2019s packaging of defense with non-defense spending. But splitting them would likely be a deal-breaker for Democratic leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, Shelby said he believes that finding a path forward won\u2019t be as difficult as in years\u2019 past. Just last spring, leaders from both parties agreed upon a two-year spending plan outlining the top line spending goals for fiscal 2019. The remaining appropriations work is just sorting out the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI would hope their goal is to fund the government, because it\u2019s not in the interest of Democrats and Republicans in the House to lurch from crisis to crisis, and here\u2019s the election coming up,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And McConnell said last week that he has been pleased with the process thus far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think, given how completely fouled up the government funding process has been for 20 years, our Democratic colleagues in the Senate are to be commended for cooperating with us,\u201d McConnell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is about omnibus prevention, about actually demonstrating to the American people that we can do what we\u2019re supposed to do on time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Senate\u2019s having a productive summer. We\u2019ve passed appropriations that cover 87% of next year\u2019s discretionary spending. We\u2019ve authorized resources for our armed forces in a bill named for Sen. McCain. And this month, we\u2019ve confirmed eight more of <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@POTUS<\/a>\u2019s judicial nominees<\/p>&mdash; U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (@SenMcConnell) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SenMcConnell\/status\/1034458845135941633?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 28, 2018<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lawmakers have until the end of September to settle appropriations bills for the upcoming fiscal year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":66074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","middle-column","home"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"4":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"5":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"6":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"7":{"categories":["daily-news-roundup","newsletters","pentagon-congress","news"],"primary_category":"daily-news-roundup"},"8":{"categories":["congress","federal-oversight","home","daily-brief","newsletters"],"primary_category":"congress"}}},"categories":[8,160,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3424,3446],"class_list":["post-29494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"FYJOOHPZDVEK7BF4CVD67Q4D5Q","arc_canonical_url":"\/congress\/2018\/09\/03\/as-lawmakers-return-to-work-shutdown-fears-loom\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>As lawmakers return to work, shutdown fears loom - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lawmakers have until the end of September to settle appropriations bills for the upcoming fiscal year.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"As lawmakers return to work, shutdown fears loom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lawmakers have until the end of September to settle appropriations bills for the upcoming fiscal year.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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