Congress takes on the annual government shutdown game

That’s the sound of the annual game of congressional chicken. The question on this, the occasion of this year’s annual government shutdown threat is, will they or won’t they get a budget deal on time? We got an update from WTOP Capitol Hill correspondent Mitchell Miller on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Interview transcript: 

Mitchell Miller Well, we’ve got a lot of lawmakers strutting around the barnyard, if you will, around here, trying to figure out exactly what they’re going to do. But with only about a week to go, we’re now essentially in Congressional Plan B, since Republicans, as you mentioned, failed to pass their own bill that was backed by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) last week. That caused Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to get the ball rolling on advancing a measure that could extend spending for a few months later this year, as opposed to the six months that Johnson had been seeking. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) says despite the political drama, he believes the government will stay open and that Congress will do its job this week.

Tim Kaine I do feel very confident that we will pass a short term continuing resolution, pass it through the end of the calendar year, and then, as we do almost every year in November and December will reach the final budget deal for the year.

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Mitchell Miller But there are still details to be worked out, of course, and the House will obviously need to take action along with the Senate. But it was widely believed the original bill proposed by Speaker Johnson was not going to go anywhere, and there’s no appetite for a government shutdown here. The Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), said last week that it would be stupid. Also, you have a lot of moderate republicans up for reelection, and they don’t want any part of a shutdown as we get closer to Nov. 5. And even the hardliners in the House Freedom Caucus have indicated they’re basically resigned to a continuing resolution. I think there will still, of course, be some opposition. By the way, a local development Maryland Congressman Andy Harris (R-Md.) is now the chair of the House Freedom Caucus. He is the only Republican in the congressional delegation of Maryland. And interestingly enough, he is an appropriator. He’s got a key position on the Appropriations Committee. He’s a little more low key than some of the other leaders that they’ve had at the head of the House Freedom Caucus. So we’ll have to see how that plays out. But that, of course, that development is related to the fact that Virginia Congressman Bob Good (R-Va.) was defeated in his primary race. So now you have new leadership ahead of this conservative House Freedom Caucus.

Tom Temin Yes. Imagine a state that produces the majority leader and also the Freedom Caucus head. I guess we’re a diverse state in Maryland, those of us that live there. So and Chip Roy (R-Texas.), one of that wing did support the bill that Speaker Johnson put forth, too. So as you point out, it’s really hard to predict what will happen on a given thing. And I guess it was because of the voting and illegal immigrant provisions in there.

Mitchell Miller So you had a very diverse group of about 14 Republicans who opposed it for a variety of reasons. Chip Roy basically said this is the best we can do at this point. He has, as you mentioned, been a fierce opponent of continuing resolutions, wants much deeper federal spending cuts. And then you had other people who just thought it was a little gimmicky to include the election security provision, as House Speaker Johnson has identified it, basically saying that you need to have certification of U.S. citizenship to vote in a federal election. Democrats and critics of this proposal said this is already on the federal books so that there is no need for it. However, former President Trump has pushed hard for it, and former President Trump has said he still thinks that Republicans should hold out for this provision, the Save Act, and really risk a shutdown. But even the most conservative members of the Republican conference don’t think that’s going to happen.

Tom Temin We’re speaking with WTOP Capitol Hill correspondent Mitchell Miller. And there’s a few other things going on, in particular, there looking on Capitol Hill at Secret Service funding, which has been reportedly under what it needs for many, many years now.

Mitchell Miller Right. This is an area where there is actually a lot of bipartisan support. The question is, what kind of shape is the additional funding or resources for the Secret Service are going to come? Obviously, this is in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Trump that occurred in Pennsylvania, and then the apparent attempt in Florida. A lot of questions from lawmakers about both of those incidents, although there was some general praise for what the Secret Service did in this situation around the golf course in Florida. But I spoke with Maryland Congressman Glenn Ivey, who is on the assassination task force that was formed after the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania. And he’s one of the lawmakers who says he would actually support some type of emergency legislation or some kind of additional funding to go immediately to the Secret Service. However, because of all the balls in the air, if you will, in connection with the short term spending bill. It’s really unclear how this is going to take shape. But Republicans as well on the task force, as well as a lot of others in Congress do think that the Secret Service needs some kind of additional manpower that have a unique situation here where you have a former president of the United States who needs constant protection, obviously, along with his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, and then, of course, the president of the United States, President Biden himself. So it’s clear that the Secret Service has really been stretched thin and they have been having talks with lawmakers to see how they might be able to get some more resources. One of the things that was mentioned, in fact, last week by the head of the Secret Service, Ron Rowe, the acting director, is they actually need training for more snipers. And there are a lot of other things that have to happen in terms of training. So this is not something that they can necessarily ramp up right away. But they’re also looking at other ways that they might be able to take from other federal agencies to bolster the Secret Service through federal law enforcement.

Tom Temin Sure. To train a sniper, as I understand the job from the military context that I’ve read about anyway, it takes a couple of years.

Mitchell Miller Right, Exactly. So these are things that, there’s really two tracks. There’s Glenn Ivey was saying there are some things that we might be able to do in the short term, and he would really like to do some things even as the election moves, the campaign moves forward. But on the other hand, on the second track, they really have these long term bigger issues that they really need to address. And I think that’s something that you’re going to see Congress taking a big close look at in the weeks and months ahead.

Mitchell Miller All right. And just on a final note, what is Congress’ schedule now between now and the election?

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Mitchell Miller Well, you’re going to have a lot of the oxygen, of course, taken up about what we’ve talked about, the continuing resolution, of course, resolving the matter of keeping the government up and running. There are some hearings this week. They are going to be highly politicized in nature, as you might expect, with both sides taking aim at each other. I think a lot of these hearings eventually devolve, quite frankly, into finger pointing related to the two presidential candidates. So that’s what we’re going to see this week. And then this is really the end of the business week for the House and the Senate. And after this week, the calendar is clear for them to go back to their districts and do what they do, which is, of course, campaign all the way up until Election Day. And also, of course, we already have some of the voting taking place. Early voting started last week in Virginia. And so we’re really ramping up into that big, heavy part of the election season. And I just don’t think that there is going to be a lot of legislating getting done over the next few days, and obviously for the next few weeks until we actually have the election Nov. 5.

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