There will be a government shutdown on Friday if Congress doesn’t pass a bill to keep the government funded. Speaker Mike Johnson, to the surprise of many on the Hill, unveiled a 1,547-page continuing resolution loaded up with many unrelated and costly provisions.
It included $100 billion in disaster aid, purportedly for hurricane recovery, but likely far in excess of any actual need months after the hurricanes have passed. It would also waive some of the limitations on disaster aid based on income and proof of need, making fraud easier.
It wouldn’t be a true Republican spending bill if it didn’t include giveaways for farmers. It had $30 billion in aid for farmers, who are bracing for the impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs on their export markets, and a one-year extension of the farm bill. It would also allow gasoline with 15 percent ethanol to be sold year-round in every state. The ethanol folks always get paid.
It includes half a billion dollars for child care, a measure supported by Democrats. It also pays credence to Joe Biden’s campaign against “junk fees” by mandating that ticket sellers include the total ticket price at the beginning of a transaction.
The bill would include a cost-of-living adjustment for members of Congress, which is not an entirely unwarranted provision given their pay has not changed since 2009, but sneaking it into a lame-duck bill was not necessary. It would also allow members of Congress to opt out of Obamacare and use federal employees’ health benefits instead. Further health-care provisions would overhaul the regulation of pharmacy-benefit managers.
The bill traded RFK Stadium to the District of Columbia in exchange for moving an Air National Guard squadron to Maryland. It included federal funding for the replacement of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, which ought to be mostly a state responsibility.
It would give another $5.7 billion to the Virginia-class submarine program, which is already billions over budget. Restrictions on U.S. investment in China were included. The American Music Tourism Act got thrown in as well.
This everyone-gets-pork spending bill at year’s end is the sort of thing Johnson had promised not to do as speaker. He insists that the bill is not a Christmas tree, but it’s hard to see why that isn’t a fair description for a must-pass spending bill in the second half of December ornamented with just about every spare piece of legislation sitting around the Capitol.
Donald Trump and JD Vance have announced their opposition to the bill, but they threw in the desire to also raise the debt limit now. Congress will likely have until June to raise the debt limit. The pressing deadline is to avoid a government shutdown on Friday. Government shutdowns have proven to be ineffective ways to reform spending, but deals crafted around the debt limit have in the past proven helpful. A debt limit hike should not be included in any current deal.
A “clean” CR that keeps the government funded in the short term should be the way to go for the House right now. If Trump and Elon Musk want things to look different in the future, they should prioritize a complete reworking of the congressional budget process by rewriting the laws that govern it. The 1974 budget act that currently governs the process has never worked, and Congress has never actually passed an entire budget on time according to its rules.
The congressional tradition of enormous must-pass bills at the end of the calendar year with no time to even read the legislation, let alone debate it, is the kind of thing Republicans should be striving to end. This bill deserved to die, and if the incoming Republican trifecta wants to make a big difference for the good of the country, it should redo the broken budget process from the ground up.