Campaign Action
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he's willing to consider legislation that would make it harder to shut down the government. Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia was the first out of the gate with (terrible acronym trigger warning), the Stop Stupidity (Shutdowns Transferring Unnecessary Pain and Inflicting Damage in the Coming Years) Act, one of several ideas bouncing around Capitol Hill.
There's also legislation bubbling in the House, receiving initial support from Speaker Nancy Pelosi and even Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, who wants to go scorched-earth. "You want to know how you'll never have a shutdown again? Let's not pay the members of Congress and Senate," McCarthy said on Meet the Press. That, in fact, is what Warner's bill would do. When budgets expired and government funding ran out, an automatic continuing resolution at current funding levels would kick in. However, it would not include legislative and executive branch funding, so that lawmakers and the president would still feel the heat and be more likely to come to agreement.
That part isn't universally appealing in Congress, not surprisingly. For example, House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland "would want to make sure all of the implications were understood before moving forward on any of the proposals," says his spokeswoman Mariel Saez. Which makes a certain amount of sense, because it—like everything—could be weaponized, and because it could make Congress even more unproductive, refusing to pass budgets and have the necessary discussions on government funding levels.
But right now, in the middle of Trump's presidency, it makes all the sense to take this weapon away. They can do that with supermajority votes in both chambers, and have every incentive to do so.