Congress stumbles toward government shutdown deadline

[Zorro]

Congress staggered toward a fast-approaching government funding cliff on Tuesday, as leading lawmakers zeroed in on a bipartisan funding compromise but struggled to cinch a final deal.

Without new legislation, government agencies will shutter at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) was widely expected to introduce a continuing resolution, or CR, over the weekend to punt that deadline into mid-March.

Instead, disputes over aid for farmers and funding for Baltimore’s collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge appeared to cloud discussions over the weekend, lawmakers said. Those projects threatened to turn what was supposed to be a routine federal funding extension into a dreaded end-of-year “Christmas tree,” decorated with lawmakers’ pet projects.

“The CR looks a lot like something my late beagle used to hide under my back porch. I think it’s a mess,” Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-Louisiana) said Monday evening.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/12/17/government-shutdown-baltimore-bridge-farms/

[Oneear]

1. Pass the Farm Bill so America can Eat Please GOP

If not Congress, you will be Hungry without Food, Just like the rest of Us

[republianmushroom]

2. The ever couple months drama in Washington.

Going to be an interesting four years.