Editorial written by The Virginian-Pilot Editorial Board.
In less than a week, the federal government will once again exhaust funding authorized by Congress, which would force the closure of nonessential services and could result in the temporary furlough of hundreds of thousands of workers.
Despite the urgency of the moment and disruptions that would occur as a result, federal leaders are slouching toward a shutdown. President Donald Trump announced Monday he had canceled a meeting with Democratic leaders in Congress over how to break the impasse, leaving talks at a standstill.
Weaponizing federal funding used to be a rare and extreme act, but no more. That cavalier approach ignores the widespread harm to average Americans, including to a good number of people in Hampton Roads, and reflects a failure of those we send to Washington to fulfill even their most basic responsibilities in office.
The nation is only six months on from the last showdown over federal spending, which resulted in a deal to provide funding through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. Recall that those negotiations unfolded during the Trump administration’s blitz of sweeping changes that included the massive downsizing of several agencies and the termination of tens of thousands of workers.
Then and now, Democrats who lack a majority in either chamber had only one point of leverage: that Republicans needed a handful of Democratic defections in the Senate to reach the 60-vote threshold required to pass a continuing resolution. Ultimately Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., reasoned that a shutdown would give Trump more latitude to continue his federal downsizing and helped provide the margins needed to keep Washington operating.
But that short-term measure simply kicked the can down the road to September, when the same issues remain. House Republicans passed a bill to fund the government through Nov. 21 — ensuring yet another fight in the coming months — but it failed in the Senate on Friday.
Senate Democrats have offered a proposal of their own. In addition to keeping the government open, it would extend enhanced tax credits under the Affordable Care Act set to expire at the end of the year. Research by KFF, a nonpartisan health care policy nonprofit, shows that premiums will spike for millions of Americans if Congress fails to act.
However, Democrats have another problem in their negotiations with the White House, that being an administration which cannot be trusted to honor any agreement reached by Congress.
The Government Accounting Office has identified six times this year that Trump has violated the Impoundment Control Act, which requires the executive branch to spend money appropriated by the legislature. (Trump maintains that the law is unconstitutional but it has yet to be decided by the courts.) The White House has withheld funds for Head Start, the National Institutes for Health, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and K-12 education.
