Once Again, Congress Skips Out As Shutdown Nears

By: Benjamin J. Hulac, Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON — Congress is once again heading toward a government shutdown after Republicans and Democrats in the Senate voted against one another’s funding bills and both congressional chambers left town.

After the House on Friday passed a short-term Republican bill to fund the government, the Senate voted in quick succession on proposals from both parties to keep money flowing past Sept. 30, when funding expires.

Democrats want funding to run through Oct. 31 and are pressing to include more than $1 trillion in health care funding. Republicans want to extend funding through Nov. 21 and provide $88 million for security for Congress, the Supreme Court and executive branch officials.

“You can’t cut a trillion dollars without creating devastating consequences for our constituents,” said Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th), the top Democrat on the House Energy & Commerce, which oversees health policy, said during floor debate Friday, referring to cut that size to Medicaid, the national health insurance system for the poor and disabled, within a new Republican budget law.

Clock is ticking

Both bills in the Senate fell short of the 60 votes most legislation needs to clear the Senate filibuster and become law. The two halves of Congress — the Senate and the House — must pass identical legislation before the president can sign it into effect.

The impasse between chambers and parties escalates the chance of a shutdown, with both parties pointing fingers and casting blame at one another.

“The Republican bill is a clean, nonpartisan, short-term continuing resolution to fund the government to give us time to do the full appropriations process,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota who leads his party in the Senate.

The funding deadline is the first significant point of leverage Democrats have enjoyed during the second Trump presidency since March, when Congress was also debating a funding bill.

House votes to curb presidential war powersBecause funding legislation requires 60 votes and Republicans have 53 senators, GOP members need support from at least seven Democrats to get whatever spending bill emerges from the chamber.

The Constitution empowers Congress, not the president, to write and approve the federal budget, though Trump has repeatedly violated federal budget law this year by canceling already-approved funding, according to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office.

The House passed its bill on a 217-to-212 vote, with New Jersey’s delegation voting along party lines — Republicans for it, Democrats against.

In the funding negotiations, Democrats zeroed in on extending federal tax credits for the 2010 federal health law known as Obamacare. Their proposal would permanently extend tax credits that are scheduled to expire at the end of the year.

“This bill does not protect Americans’ health care,” Rep. Nellie Pou (D-9th) said of the Republican proposal, criticizing it as a “blank check” for President Donald Trump.

Unless Congress acts swiftly, premiums for people who receive health coverage through federal marketplaces are projected to increase about 16% in New Jersey.

“These tax credits help tens of thousands of people in the Fifth District, and hundreds of thousands across Jersey, afford their health care,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-5th) said in a statement after voting against the Republican bill.

Democrats and some Republicans, including Reps. Jeff Van Drew (R-2nd) and Tom Kean Jr. (R-7th), support a separate bill to extend those credits to 2027.

What if there is a government shutdown?

But federal government shutdowns tend to cost — not save — money.

“For one, putting contingency plans in place has a real cost. In addition, many user fees and other charges are not collected during a shutdown, and federal contractors sometimes include premiums in their bids to account for uncertainty in being paid,” the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group, said last week. “While many federal employees are forced to be idle during a shutdown, they have historically received and are now guaranteed back pay, negating much of those potential savings.”

During a shutdown, certain groups of federal workers are considered “essential” and are required to work without pay, such as active members of the armed forces, embassy staff, air traffic controllers, airport security and border security.

As threats increase, so may protection for CongressOther employees considered “non-essential” will be furloughed, though under a 2019 law they would be paid once Congress passes funding legislation to keep the government running.

Services and payments through Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will still essentially continue as usual, since those programs are not funded through the congressional appropriations process.

The U.S. Postal Service and Amtrak would not be affected. Both receive federal money but also collect payment from customers.

Federal lands, like those of the National Park Service or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, may be closed to the public or operate with limited staff.

The inability of Congress to fund the government is a relatively modern phenomenon. The first shutdown happened in 1981 after President Ronald Reagan vetoed a funding bill because he wanted deep cuts for domestic programs. That shutdown lasted just four days.

Since then, funding gaps that stretched at least two weeks have happened in 1995 and into 1996; in 2013; and, most recently, for 34 days in December 2018 and into January of 2019.

That shutdown cost about $3 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Many federal workers cannot travel during a shutdown, and scores of federal contractors also have to stop their work.

Planning is also thrown into flux, as the CBO report says: “Agencies without appropriations also are constrained in what goods and services they can purchase.”