By Brendan Scanland
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congress will return to Washington next month well behind schedule on its obligation to fund the government.
Given the tight window from when lawmakers return to DC and the Oct. 1 funding deadline, the likely outcome will be another short-term spending measure that maintains current levels of funding in place since the Biden administration. However, experts aren’t ruling a potential shutdown.
The countdown is on — just weeks remain before lawmakers must act to keep the government running past Sept. 30.
Some Republicans want to push through new, full-year spending bills for 2026. However, appropriators are far behind after spending much of the year working to pass the president’s “one, big beautiful bill.”
“Because of reconciliation, we’re a little bit behind. We may not get to appropriations this year. It might end up being a C.R. where we have flat funding for another year,” said Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-N.Y.).
Although not ideal, some Republicans, including Langworthy, say another continuing resolution — or C.R. — could be inevitable in order to keep the government open while lawmakers seek a broader spending deal.
“It doesn’t allow for administrative priorities, it doesn’t allow us to pivot our priorities as the Congress. We’ll be stuck at the Biden level of spending,” Langworthy said.
“It’s a very tough process. As much as people say, well, Congress can control the purse strings. Yes, to a degree. But getting these projects done is very, very complicated,” said Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.).
Democrats say a potential shutdown would be on Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress and the White House.
“You control everything — the House, the Senate and the presidency. What’s your strategy right now? They can’t even agree amongst themselves,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), before lawmakers left for recess in July. “We’re going to be in a position where they own everything that is happening in September if we lead toward a shutdown.”
Continuing resolutions have become more common in recent decades and are now essentially the norm to avoid government shutdowns.
“A continuing resolution should be viewed as a failure in budgeting,” said Dominik Lett, a budget policy analyst at the Cato Institute.
Lett says Congress is failing to complete one of its most important obligations.
“We should be making the kind of tough decisions to reduce spending and make changes to spending, not kind of just holding previous year spending flat, plus inflation, plus the various sort of gimmicks that Congress always adds on to these sort of packages,” Lett said.
Republicans will need support from Democrats to reach the 60-vote threshold in the Senate to approve any spending bills. That could provide Democrats with an opportunity to win some concessions on clean energy tax credits and other priorities.
“They want to extract certain concessions out of Republicans. They don’t want more rescissions bills. They want discussions on the nominees. They want guarantees on certain tax credits, pandemic-related tax credits. All of those things, I think, are in the mix,” Lett said.
Depending on how those negotiations unfold could determine whether Congress finds common ground — or if the country edges closer to another shutdown showdown.
“In all likelihood — because Republicans need 60 votes in the Senate — they’ll probably pursue a continuing resolution, kind of like what happened for fiscal year 2025,” said Lett.
The White House has already unveiled its budget proposal for the next fiscal year, which includes big reductions in spending across the federal government. The proposed cuts, including the White House’s request for a 40% reduction for the National Institutes of Health, have sparked backlash among Democrats and various health care advocates.
Republicans say the president’s request is merely the starting point before Congress makes its own changes, reaches an agreement and sends it back to the president.
“That’s all very theoretical. The president’s budget isn’t the Congress’s budget. And the president’s budget, in any administration, is a guideline. They obviously do a lot of things in the president’s budget that probably won’t come to reality because members of Congress have disagreements in policy,” Langworthy said.
