Lawmakers from both sides have introduced legislation that would keep agencies and departments running at the current funding level if no new budget is signed into law….
It is unlikely that the effort would be signed into law by Donald Trump…
Lawmakers would have to override a possible veto, which is tall order for Republicans in the Senate…
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are exploring legislative options that would prevent a repeat of the record 35-day shutdown, and their proposed solutions are drawing interest and support from top congressional leaders.
Members of both parties have introduced bills that would automatically fund the government at existing levels if lawmakers can’t meet statutory budget deadlines.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reportedly expressed interest in the idea during a columnist roundtable shortly before the shutdown ended Friday, while Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) endorsed the approach at a news conference in Manhattan.
“Now that the shutdown is over, we should roll up our sleeves and make sure it never happens again,” Schumer said, according to Newsday.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he not only supported the legislative proposals out there, he said he would “go further.”
“You want to know how you’ll never have a shutdown again? Let’s not pay the members of Congress and Senate,” McCarthy said.
The push comes as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said in a report Monday that the shutdown cost the U.S. economy an estimated $11 billion, with $3 billion expected to be permanently lost even after workers receive back pay and services return to normal.
Senators in both parties first pushed the shutdown-prevention idea earlier this month, before the government fully reopened…..