As lawmakers continue to hammer out the details of a new federal budget, ahead of this Friday’s deadline, what are the battles they face to avoid a partial government shutdown?
Rober Hogan, a professor and department chair of Political Science at Louisiana State University, recently joined WWL News Radio in New Orleans, sharing that the biggest issue Republicans are currently facing is razor-thin majorities.
Hogan shared that despite having majority control of Congress, thin majorities in the House and a lack of a supermajority in the Senate make it difficult for them to do anything other than “kick the can down the road,” which appears to be what’s on the table at the moment.
With funding set to run out on March 14, lawmakers are currently discussing a six-month budget extension bill that would keep the government funded through September instead of a full-year budget for fiscal 2025.
“A lot of people complain about this, but this is the way that budgets are,” Hogan said, adding that lawmakers are hoping “not to go through the slow and deliberate process for the twelve different committees of coming up with a budget and then having it approved overall.”
Instead, he says they will keep funding levels at the rate they were last year, helping them push the problem into the future and avoiding a shutdown.
Even to do this, Republicans in the Senate will need some Democrats to be on board.
“They’re hoping that the Democrats or at least a small number of Democrats will go along with them on this, and that’s ultimately, I think, what they’re going to need to get it passed,” Hogan said.
The efforts from Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has support from at least two Democratic Senators, John Fetterman (D-PA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), who both have said they will vote to avoid a shutdown if needed.
Fetterman said rejecting a six-month funding measure is “chaos” and that he’ll “never vote for chaos.” Wyden said, “Shutdowns are a bad idea. I’m not a shutdown guy.”
Still, one downside for this is that not coming up with a new budget only emphasizes the priorities from the Biden administration, not the Trump administration.
However, Hogan says that another six months of funding will give Republicans the time they need to find a path forward for several of Trump’s desired policies.
“I think they want to give themselves time because what they ultimately want to do is to pass a new budget, and that includes a continuation of large tax cuts that Trump wants,” Hogan said. “It’s a big priority for him. In order for those tax cuts to continue, they have to be voted upon again, and also other cuts and changes to the budget.
“So they’re trying to give themselves a lot of room because they know they’re going to need it to be able to get these things through because, again, the margins in both houses are quite small.”