After 36 days of this dereliction of duty we are now in the longest government shutdown in history…
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and his Republican colleagues had five months to pass appropriation bills and send them to the Senate. They only needed a simple majority in the House of Representatives in order to accomplish this essential annual task. House Democrats had no real power to stop or impede them. The House Republicans failed on their own nonetheless.
Their colleagues in the Senate did their jobs only a little better...
USGBC
Released in May, the President’s Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) budget request would lower non-defense spending by $163 billion, a nearly 25 percent cut compared to the previous year. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the Department of Energy (DOE), and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) are among those targeted for deep cuts, including zeroing out longstanding programs like ENERGY STAR, the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), and HUD’s Community Development Block Grant program.
It is up to Congress, though, to set federal spending levels through the annual appropriations process. Although Republicans control both chambers of Congress, the 60-vote threshold for approving appropriations bills in the Senate means they still need some Democratic votes to move forward.
So far, the House Appropriations Committee has passed all 12 of its FY26 spending bills, pushing for steep spending cuts in line with the President’s budget request. Three of the House bills have been approved by the full chamber by a narrow majority. The Senate, on the other hand, has largely pursued smaller cuts or level funding, often with broader bipartisan support. The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved eight of its 12 bills, with some still not yet released.
That’s been the state of things since early September...
Speaker Johnson reacted by passing a continuing resolution over which, again, House Democrats had no control. Unfortunately for Speaker Johnson, Senate Democrats couldn’t agree to the terms of the aforementioned continuing resolution and refused to vote for it. Specifically, they wish to extend ACA tax breaks that lowered health care costs for many Americans which were eliminated when Trump signed his One Big Beautiful Bill into law on our nation’s Independence Day.
Last week President Trump called on Senate Republicans to break the logjam...
Roll Call
President Donald Trump late Thursday called for Senate Republicans to end the partial government shutdown by using the “nuclear option” to eliminate the legislative filibuster.
Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that Democrats “want Trillions of Dollars to be taken from our Healthcare System and given to others, who are not deserving — People who have come into our Country illegally, many from prisons and mental institutions. This will hurt American citizens, and Republicans will not let it happen. It is now time for the Republicans to play their ‘TRUMP CARD,’ and go for what is called the Nuclear Option — Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!”
(snip)
There had been less public pressure on Senate Republicans to gut the filibuster this Congress, perhaps in part because they accomplished much of their legislative agenda through a sweeping budget reconciliation law, but the ongoing lapse in appropriations has started to increase the calls for using the “nuclear option.” Trump’s interest will likely amplify that once again.
Predictably, Republicans have descended to infighting...
The Hill
Republicans have been clamoring for Democrats to strike a deal to reopen the government for weeks, but an intraparty brouhaha has been developing in the background. There is widespread agreement that the Nov. 21 end date of the House-passed bill won’t leave lawmakers enough time to work out funding for the rest of the year, but top negotiators are at odds over what the length of the bill should be.
(snip
(Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan) Collins... is attempting to avoid a worst-case scenario for appropriators: a full-year CR that would continue on at Biden-era spending levels and make her committee less relevant in the process. It would be the second full-year CR in a row Congress has passed and would mean the government would operate until September 2026 at spending levels set under former President Biden in March 2024.
(snip)
Negotiations on a bipartisan deal to end the shutdown have centered on passing a short-term CR with a minibus attached that funds military construction and veterans affairs, the legislative branch and the Department of Agriculture, with the intent of giving Democrats a vote to extend the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies.
To be perfectly fair, no Congress has passed a full budget on time since 1997...
Pew Research Center
Congress’ chronic inability to follow its own appropriations process is hardly new. In the nearly five decades that the current system for budgeting and spending tax dollars has been in place, Congress has passed all its required appropriations measures on time only four times: fiscal 1977 (the first full fiscal year under the current system), 1989, 1995 and 1997. And even those last three times, Congress was late in passing the budget blueprint that, in theory at least, precedes the actual spending bills.
In short, the typical appropriations process bears little resemblance to the orderly one laid out in the 1974 Congressional Budget Act. Instead, it’s a hodgepodge of late budget blueprints, temporary spending measures to keep the government running, and omnibus appropriations packages that sprawl over hundreds of pages.
(snip)
Including the current one, there have been six shutdowns since 1995, excluding a nine-hour funding gap (the interval between the expiration of one continuing resolution and the enactment of another) in the overnight hours of Feb. 8-9, 2018. Prior to this year, the most recent shutdown lasted 35 days, from Dec. 22, 2018, to Jan. 25, 2019.
Meanwhile “negotiations” are allegedly ongoing, but neither side seems interested in giving up ground.
With countless government employees furloughed, servicemembers going unpaid, 42 million of the most vulnerable Americans losing SNAP benefits, and our nation’s air traffic controllers exhausted and exasperated; not to mention goon squads disappearing people while crops rot in our fields and farmers lose their shirts; Republicans continue to try and bullshit their way out of the fucking mess they’ve made.
Associated Press
President Donald Trump said in an interview that aired Sunday that he “won’t be extorted” by Democrats who are demanding negotiations to extend the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies. Echoing congressional Republicans, the president said on CBS’ “60 Minutes” he’ll negotiate only when the government is reopened.
(snip)
Trump’s comments signal the shutdown could drag on for some time as federal workers, including air traffic controllers, are set to miss additional paychecks and there’s uncertainty over whether 42 million Americans who receive federal food aid will be able to access the assistance. Senate Democrats have voted 13 times against reopening the government, insisting they need Trump and Republicans to negotiate with them first.
These so called “leaders” need to shit or get off the pot…
