Congress Averts Shutdown

The House and Senate have passed a bill to fund large parts of the government until September 30. This will prevent chaos from breaking out in Washington, which already has a lot of problems to solve before the election.

The threat of a shutdown was looming over Republicans, who are usually portrayed as the responsible party by the media. In general, Democrats are willing to spend as much money as they can for every department, making negotiations a question of how much rather than what to spend money on. The Washington Post says:

The Senate voted Friday to prevent a partial government shutdown that was set to begin in mere hours by approving legislation to fund roughly 30 percent of the federal government for the next six months, sending it to President Biden to sign into law.

The legislation — which passed by a 75 to 22 vote — devotes $459 billion to the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and Food and Drug Administration, for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The House passed the measure on Wednesday.

As a hedge against the Biden Administration, Republican lawmakers made sure to secure earmarks for their constitutents, rather than leave Biden officials to dole out benefits to their friends. Politico continues:

Within the spending package the Senate passed Friday night, lawmakers secured more than $900 million in earmarks. Ensuring federal funding will be used for specific projects in their districts is seen as a particular boon for Republicans, since the Biden administration would otherwise decide how to divvy up that cash through grants.

“Republicans can correctly claim that they’re directing funds to worthwhile projects in their state, rather than leave it up to political appointees of the Democratic administration,” said Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the top Republican appropriator in the Senate.

Republicans must focus on issues that speak to the average voter, like crime and inflation. While the debt is an important task to tackle, it cannot fully be in a political environment with such a slim majority in one house, while the presidency is occupied by another party.

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