We finally passed an update to the budget.

Well, not really.

What Congress passed was a “pass the buck” bill- an agreement to keep the government functioning, while our Congress folks ostensibly try to determine how much money each federal department will be allocated.  One should note that half the year has already passed and we still operating using last year’s appropriations.

Moreover, while the continuing resolution was clean (which means no other conditions were included in the bill- like a reduction in funding, funds for Israel or Ukraine), this was not our typical continuing resolution (a CR).

First, it was passed using what is termed a “suspension of the rules”.  This modality was chosen, since it as clear there would not be enough Republican votes to pass the bill. As such, it meant that 2/3 of the House had to approve these budgetary concerns.  And, that’s exactly how the bill passed- 93 Republicans voted against the bill, while only 2 Democrats were not on board.  (This means  most of thé 2/3 of the approval votes came from the Democratic congressfolk.)

A typical CR from years past would be a single piece of legislation that covered all of the Federal governments departments.  As a matter of fact, the CR under which we have been operating that was to expire at midnight Friday night was just that.

The rush was on (ok, the crawl) to pass the resolution so the federal government would not shut down right after Thanksgiving.  Meaning no paychecks over the holiday for our military and government employees, among other failures.

This version of the CR was comprised of  two pieces.  One, that covers the Pentagon (military), Veterans, Agriculture and food programs, Transportation, and Housing and Development; this sdection, expires on 19 January 2024.  (That means budgets for these department are to be developed and passed by that date, or these portions of the government will lose their funding authorizations and be shut down.)

The second portion of the bill, covering State, Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, and the rest of the government, would expire on 2 February.   With the same provisos as the first part of the bill.

Supposedly, this was proposed to provide more time to develop working budgets for these agencies.  And, if that were really true, this could be an interesting innovation.

However, I see the second portion of the bill being held up (literally and figuratively).  I except the “Freedom Causus” and  others of that ilk to apply pressure to dramatically cut provisions for many of these programs in the second tier.  (This is the part of the government that these folks want to cut budget funding.) .  Those 93 republicans who voted against the CR are the same ones clamoring to slash various departmental budgets.  Now, once their treasured programs (tier one of the CR) have been funded, they can withhold approval for these other departments.  And, only those agencies they don’t like will lack funding.

How is it that no one else is talking about this potential scenario?

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