House Speaker Paul Ryan's promise that there would be a spending bill Tuesday night didn't really happen. With a late season snowstorm bearing down on D.C. the whole government has shut down, except Congress, which still has to pass something to keep government funded after midnight, Friday.
That's what happens when you don't do your homework in time. As of Wednesday morning, they're still at it, though closer, meaning House members will have at most a day to review the massive $1.3 trillion bill, and the Senate even less if they hope to have it pass by a midnight Friday deadline. So the dreaded stop-gap bill to cover the weekend is still a possibility.
In this last major legislative vehicle of the year, they're not doing much legislating. As of now, there is no protection for the Dreamers, no stabilization of the Obamacare markets, no money for the Gateway project to improve passenger rail access to and from Manhattan (so much for infrastructure week), and no revamp of Congress's policies to prevent sexual harassment in the institution. It's still possible that an expansion of background checks for gun sales could possibly happen. What won't happen is a border wall and a massive influx of ICE forces.
According to the three officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive negotiations, the spending deal includes $1.6 billion in funding for border-wall construction — delivering taxpayer funds to a key Trump priority.
But the number is far short of the $25 billion the administration sought. Democrats also won tight restrictions on how the money can be spent, two officials said. […]
The bill also rejects a Trump administration request for more immigration enforcement officers and an increase in funding for detention facilities for illegal immigrants.Language in the bill, two officials said, holds the level of enforcement agents flat and does not allow the administration to add new detention beds.
In a nod to the fact that we've got an election in less than eight months and we know that Russia is already meddling in it, they have included $380 million to the Election Assistance Commission to help states improve their election cybersecurity and $300 million to the FBI in counterintelligence funding to combat Russian hacking.
If they're really considering a very short term bill to get them through the weekend, there could be changes, and changes could be forced by the Senate. The House will probably still try to vote Thursday, since Paul Ryan has declared the rule that bills have to be available to members for 72 hours before voting is an "artificial deadline" so so much for that. We don't know yet if Sen. Rand Paul is planning on refusing to play along with the unanimous consent that will be necessary for the Senate to move fast on the bill. He's not making any threats as of now, but anything could happen. Will there be a government shutdown this weekend? Who knows?