WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week members of the US House and Senate will return to Washington from their month-long recess. Members will have a short amount of time to finish the big government spending bill or else there could be a shutdown. A political scientist shares the other big priorities members could focus on when they return.
“The top priorities are the spending bills,” said Dr. Todd Belt, professor and director of political management at George Washington University. “We know it was difficult to get the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ passed. There were a couple of holdouts who eventually came around and a couple who didn’t, so that means there will be some trouble trying to get these passed because they did extend the debt ceiling and there’s a lot of members especially among the Republican conference who think they were sent to Washington to cut spending and to not do politics as usual.”
Members have until September 30th to finalize the government spending bills or there could be a shutdown.
“Which means they have to pass all of these budget bills in order to keep the government funded or kick the can down the road again which is what they’ve been continually been doing with a continuing resolution,” said Dr. Belt. “They don’t want to do that but they might necessarily have to. Also, when it comes to the budget, the big fish in the water is the NDAA. That’s the defense authorization act. That’s been in a couple of committees but it hasn’t gone to the full floor yet, but we’ll see a lot of action on that because that’s where all the money is.”
Before the break, the case against disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein consumed Washington. Dr. Belt believes it still has some momentum on the Hill.
“A lot of these members have gone out to their districts and heard from some of their constituents who are concerned about the Epstein files, Democrats and Republicans alike,” said Dr. Belt. “If the Republicans don’t take it up or pass over it, the Democrats will be very vocal about that.”
While members were away, the President brought in additional federal agents and the national guard to DC to curb crime. Data shows violent crime has gone down since the surge of additional resources. Dr. Belt believes congress could work on a crime bill.
“This is where Republicans think they can really put Democrats back on their heels,” said Dr. Belt. “Republicans feel they will attack them on the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’, on Medicaid and such. They need something to target Democrats with. Crime is something that usually works well with Republicans and they can get Democrats on record as voting against a crime bill. That might be very helpful for them coming up with the next elections.”
