Congress and President Trump averted another holiday season government shutdown when he signed all 12 appropriations bills into law Friday, hours before stopgap spending was set to lapse.
Lawmakers have promised to try to finish the fiscal year 2021 appropriations bills before that fiscal year starts Oct. 1.
“Let me stress my objective will be next year to get that done,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said last week.
Nearly everyone acknowledges, however, that it is a difficult challenge so close to a presidential election.
“We’ll go through the whole mechanics of hearings and so forth, as we do, and try to build some momentum of working together,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said, according to CQ. “But I can’t tell you what will happen next fall. What we generally do is come back in a lame-duck session and finish up.”
DOD photo of Sen. Richard Shelby by U.S. Army Sgt. James K. McCann
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