We’re talking about a spending bill on this….
The parties are NOT talking about a separate virus stimulus bill….
The leaders themselves are not talking yet….
And?
Of course we have a sulking and pissed off President Donald Trump lurking in the background out to fuck EVERYTHING up for everybody cause Joe Biden beat him for his job…
(Trump pushed us into a 35 day Government shutdown in 2018)
Staffers for the top four congressional leaders sat down on Thursday to discuss funding the government amid signs of progress toward a spending deal.
A senior Democratic aide confirmed to The Hill that staffers for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) met Thursday.
The meeting comes as Congress has until Dec. 11 to fund the government and avoid a holiday shutdown reminiscent of 2018, when it shuttered for 35 days.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who visited the Capitol on Wednesday, didn’t rule out a shutdown, feeding speculation about whether President Trump would be willing to sign a mammoth funding deal on his way out of power. He previously railed against omnibus bills, vowing to “never sign another bill like this again.”
But McConnell and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) indicated they believe the White House is supportive of an omnibus spending bill — which would include all 12 fiscal 2021 bills and fund the government through Sept. 30, 2021 — instead of a continuing resolution (CR) that would continue fiscal 2020 funding levels into early next year.
“It’s our hope … that we can come together on an omnibus and pass it,” McConnell told reporters after Meadows joined Republicans for a closed-door lunch, adding that he believed that was also the “preference of the White House.”….
If Congress could pass (and Trump sign) an omnibus budget covering the whole U.S. government until September 30, 2021, then I think that the government would be far better prepared to handle the pandemic, as well as several other internal and external crises.
That may be an obvious truism, of course (Doh!, or as we used to say “Duh!”), but the obverse, a temporary stopgap during a contentious transition (let alone no bill and a Federal shutdown) would be far weaker support.