Late Sen.John Warner, R-Va., said to me once that "we don’t do a lot in Congress.
But when we do it, we do it all at once."That is kind of where we find the House of Representatives today.Today is the penultimate day in the House before the August recess.In fact, the House may not be here much at all until after the election.So that’s why the House is trying to cram EVERYTHING into today.HOUSE GOP VOTES TO PUNT GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN BATTLE TO AFTER NOVEMBER MIDTERMSThe Capitol is seen in Washington, Friday morning, Dec.
14, 2018, after Congress adjourned until next week.Congress is racing to avoid a partial government shutdown over President Donald Trump’s border.
But you wouldn’t know it by the schedule.Lawmakers are away until next week.
The ball is in Trump’s court, both sides say.(AP Photo/J.
Scott Applewhite) Let’s start with what the House approved late last night.It approved a stopgap spending bill, renewing all funding at current levels to avoid a fall shutdown in October.
The bill would run through Dec.4.Fiscal conservatives liked the bill because it "kind of" saves money by simply renewing the current spending.
By nature, these temporary bills do just that.They don’t add in new spending.
So – in a way – that kind of holds the fiscal bottom line.But looming over everything is the touchstone of the GOP’s agenda.That’s the SAVE America Act.
The House today plans to advance a budget framework and prospectively include the SAVE America Act later on.The Senate must also adopt the same framework so it can use the special budget reconciliation process – which is immune from filibusters.
But the House and Senate can’t get to the meat and potatoes of the bill without adopting the framework.That’s why today is so important.What’s in "Reconciliation 3.0?" House Republicans will likely dump the SAVE America Act into the actual bill.
They will also load up the bill with tens of billions to cover the war in Iran and restock the Pent...