Congress is back in session with just four weeks left to avoid a government shutdown at the end of September, when the federal fiscal year comes to a close. Lawmakers face the challenge of negotiating spending levels between the House and Senate, which currently differ by four billion dollars in the USDA funding bill.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune underscored the importance of fiscal restraint before lawmakers left for their August recess. “I think it’s in everybody’s interest to avoid a government shutdown at the end of September, which, as you all know, is when our fiscal year ends,” Thune said. He added, “We very much want to see restraint in spending so that we can start dealing with the debt and deficits. And I think at least right now, the best way to do that is to have a normal appropriations process.”
But Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer countered that the process is far from normal when the White House pushes for rescissions of funds that Congress already approved, such as cuts to foreign aid and rural broadcasting. “Recissions, impoundment, pocket recissions directly undo this. And I said this about Senator Thune. You can’t say you want a bipartisan process, which you said yesterday, and at the same time put recissions on the floor, which is the antithesis of bipartisan,” Schumer said.
Schumer has been under pressure from Democrats not to compromise after he supported a GOP-backed stopgap measure in March. President Trump has said he will meet with Democratic leaders in both chambers to discuss a path forward, though he anticipates another continuing resolution will be needed to keep the government open and avoid a shutdown.
