Congress Solves Shutdown By Moving It Past Election Day
Congress solved the federal funding crisis Tuesday by rescheduling it for a period when voters could no longer alter their ballots. The House voted 370-48 to keep agencies operating through Dec. 11, approving a stopgap measure already passed by the Senate and sparing lawmakers the administrative burden of completing any of the 12 annual spending bills. Funding had been scheduled to expire Sept. 30, five weeks before Election Day, creating an unacceptable risk that citizens might observe Congress failing in real time and respond accordingly.
House Speaker Mike Johnson praised the measure as a triumph of responsible budgeting. “The American people sent us here to make difficult decisions, and we have made the difficult decision to delay making difficult decisions until their votes are safely counted,” Johnson said. “That is fiscal discipline, constitutional government and excellent calendar management.” The speaker added that the legislation would give families and businesses certainty, particularly the certainty that Congress intends to resume threatening furloughs, park closures and economic disruption after campaign advertising has ended.
House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole said the extension demonstrated that lawmakers can work across party lines whenever both parties face the same immediate danger of being blamed. Members will now return to their districts to campaign as prudent custodians of public money, citing as evidence the crisis they temporarily prevented after manufacturing it themselves. The arrangement also allows incumbents to accuse Washington of dysfunction without disclosing that they remain employed there and recently voted to preserve the dysfunction through December.
President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill, ensuring that federal offices remain open long enough for elected officials to tell voters they heroically kept them open. Lawmakers can then reconvene after the election, rediscover the same unresolved spending disputes and declare the resulting emergency unforeseeable. Congress had therefore completed its constitutional duty by ensuring that nothing requiring accountability would occur while accountability was still available.
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