In Congress, this is another one of those odd weeks where the Senate is working, but the House is out of town. That schedule means Congress is not likely to make much headway this week when it comes to finishing work on the budget for the current fiscal year.
Last week the Senate did approve a three bill “minibus” package, where three spending bills were rolled into one, meaning the Senate has passed four of the 12 budget bills.
The House has passed six of the 12, but has basically stopped floor work on the other half dozen, waiting to probably jam a bunch of them into similar “minibus” bills or even a larger “omnibus” plan to get the budget work done.
Once again, I will remind everyone that the Congress has not finished the budget on time (by October 1) since 1994.
And they obviously missed that deadline badly again this year.
With the House gone, the Senate may roll out another “minibus” this week to knock off a few more spending bills.
Since the House is out this week, lawmakers will have to act next week on a bill to keep the government running, as the current temporary budget expires on November 18.
In other words, the federal budget isn’t going to get done before Thanksgiving.
That means the week before Christmas might sound like a good target date for an omnibus.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
