The Fight Over How to Avoid a Government Shutdown Is Just Getting Started

Government Executive reports:

Members of Congress on Friday prepared to leave Washington for their summer recess without having completed a single one of the dozen appropriations bills required to fund government operations in 2017. That sets the stage for a contentious budget battle when lawmakers return to work in September following the Labor Day holiday. The current fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.

How that battle will affect agencies is anybody’s guess at this point.

Ed Lorenzen, senior advisor at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said “I’d be extremely surprised to see Congress finish the appropriations process before the election.” He thinks lawmakers may send one or two appropriations bills to the president’s desk this fall, but then will pass a stopgap spending bill to fund the government through December.

“We might get one or two bills that pass, but there will have to be a continuing resolution,” he said. Lorenzen also expects lawmakers to use various budget gimmicks—such as channeling funds through the Pentagon’s Overseas Contingency Operations account or other “emergency” accounts—to blow through the spending caps established by the 2011 Budget Control Act.

Welfare-Warfare state update.