"And all at once, summer collapsed into fall…" – Oscar WildeCongress certainly collapsed into fall this year.It lacked the usual mayhem of an imminent government shutdown for the first time in years.
The government is usually only funded through September 30, the end of the federal fiscal year.Lawmakers solved that fiscal riddle early.So the beginning of fall in Congress is usually anything but enjoyable.
Others are devouring cobbler, enjoying spiced pumpkin lattes and viewing leaves of amber.When a government shutdown looms, the infernality of summer continues to stew on Capitol Hill.
Imagine simmering political temperatures mixed with boiling urban concrete and a soupçon of petrichor.That epitomizes the customary fall tension in the halls of Congress when lawmakers are on the precipice of a shutdown.But this year is different.TRUMP SIGNS GOVERNMENT FUNDING BILL, AVOIDING A SHUTDOWN AHEAD OF MIDTERMSThe US Capitol past traffic on North Capitol street in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Dec.
23, 2025.(Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)No shutdown.
That’s a good thing, considering last year’s 43-day shutdown odyssey which crawled from October 1 into mid November.Everything is funded through December 11.
So at least members and journalists can enjoy some of those autumnal fall trappings and dash to the pumpkin patch.That’s because we don’t know what’s going to await everyone for the next spending round in mid-December.Lawmakers are recovering from the battle scars of last fall.
So with the midterms approaching, no one wanted to return to the 2025 contretemps.The sides are willing to tussle over spending.
But only after the midterms.Does that mean a shutdown in December? Unclear.If Democrats seize control of the House or Senate — or both — that could compel House and Senate Republicans to fund the government the way they want through the fall of 2027 right away.They won’t want an interim spending bill which punts things into early nex...