Members of Congress are pushing the timetable for resolving the omnibus appropriations/continuing resolution to the brink by trash talking each other for over a week. This began with Sen. Schumer, D-N.Y., labeling the tea party as extreme early last week. Once this comment became public, then the dueling press conferences and public warfare began to flow continuously through most of last week. This is a shame since the American public and valid government programs stand to be harmed or at least inconvenienced.
What is at stake is reviving and restoring the appropriations process that was avoided and completed abandoned by the Democratically controlled Congress of last year. Under the leadership ofthen-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., the Senate and House made history by failing to call up and pass a single appropriations bill through Congress.
This political face-off is the result ofabject failure on the part of the Democratically controlled Congress to do its work as outlined in our U.S. Constitution. As a matter of fact, passing the appropriations bills, which fund our various agencies and departments of our government, is the only responsibility describedfor our men and women that serve us in the U.S. Congress. Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7 of the Constitution says: no money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law. By the way, passing comprehensive health care reform or sweeping financial reform legislation is not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution.
So, this upcoming week will bring with it huge challenges for Congress. The current appropriations funding, called the CR (for continuing resolution), expires Friday, April 8, at midnight. According to the new transparency rules outlined by Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, the bill has to be printed and available for three days before the House can consider it on the House floor.
Even if the negotiators would stop trash talking and get to work, they would be hard-pressed to pass a new omnibus appropriations/CR through the House of Representatives by Friday, let alone through the full Senate and then be able to reconcile any differences between the two bodies. So what does this mean to the American public and government employees? Chances are the federal government will experience a shutdown due to a lack of funding. This means that all non-essential employees will be asked to stay home maybe as early as Monday, April 11.
Congress has allowed five government shutdowns in our recent past. The first three occurred in the 1980s and the government failed to be funded for technically only a handful of hours in each of the three instances. The fourth shutdown occurred over the Columbus Day three-day weekend and all of our government was fully funded and up and running by the Tuesday after the Monday holiday.
The fifth government shutdown occurred at the end of 1995 into 1996. Several branches ofour federal government deemed noncritical were asked to stay home for several days. However our Defense department was fully protected, as can be expected of our newer defense-related agencies of Homeland Security and the TSA (Transportation Safety Administration).
Seems to this writer that Congress is spending too much time puzzling through who gets blamed and not enough time and talent on how to resolve the spending cuts at a level that will pass both the House and the Senate.
Stay tuned to see if the trash talking subsides and members of the House and Senate can come to terms with their constitutional duty before our government spends too much time out of operation.
Elizabeth B. Letchworth is a retired, elected United States Senate secretary for the majority and minority. Currently she is a senior legislative adviser for Covington & Burling, LLC and is the founder of GradeGov.com
