House Republicans on Saturday unveiled their stopgap funding bill to avert a government shutdown set to begin next weekend. But with just five legislative days left until the deadline, Congress has little room for error.
Just two and a half weeks into the job, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., opted to go with a two-step continuing resolution, or CR, over a more typical funding extension covering the entire federal government. The untested funding approach is aimed at appeasing far-right agitators in his GOP conference who despise CRs.
The House is expected to vote as early as Tuesday to give members 72 hours to read the text of the bill, according to two people familiar with matter. The plan does not include budget cuts or aid for Israel.
Under the two-step strategy — which Johnson and others have dubbed a “laddered CR” but which others have likened to a step stool — several spending bills needed to keep the government open would catch a ride on a short-term bill until Jan. 19, while the remaining bills would go on a CR until Feb. 2.
I can see two possible explanations for why they want this stupid “ladder” structure.
They know a shut down will do them more harm than good politically, but can’t just give up after demanding so many things that were never going to work out. Therefore, they put in this stupid gimmick that doesn’t really affect anything, but which allows them to claim some kind of victory.
They want to stagger the spending cut offs so they can threaten a partial shut down next time, which they can more easily defend while still inflicting pain.
Smartest thing any of them have said in a while.
Splitting parts of government that they consider essential from those they’re willing to hold hostage. TSA and defence in one bill, medicare, FDA, and DOT in the other.
xactly
While I’m sure that’s the case, I don’t think that makes much of a difference. The whole government shuts down two weeks later, so doesn’t really separate the issues. It just make it easier for them to go over the cliff, since they won’t care about the harm being done, and won’t have to answer questions about voting against things their supporters care about while they’re trying to play hardball.
In other words, this doesn’t accomplish anything meaningful on its own, it just tries to put them in a better bargaining position so they can make stronger demands next year.
they want it to group everything they want to defund in one place and not let it go through.