What Needs to Happen on Government Funding

Playbook: “The House is planning — at the moment — to take up a $5 billion wall funding bill. GOP leadership believes they’ll be able to get 218 on their own — Democrats are obviously not going to chip in to pass this. Republicans say rebuking Nancy Pelosi — who said the House can’t pass it — is enough to snap their crowd into action. We are a bit more skeptical they’ll be able to get this through. For example: 44 lawmakers were out yesterday. Twenty of them are people who will not be returning next Congress.”

“If the House somehow manages to pass it, the Senate will then fail to get 60 votes on that bill, which could — in theory — reset this process by the end of this week.”

“A shutdown remains very likely . It just doesn’t seem like a deal is in the works, or close to being thought about.”

“There are 13 days between the funding deadline and when Democrats take over the House. Pelosio could begin the 116th Congress by passing a stopgap to end a partial shutdown. At that point, it would fly through the Senate and Trump would have to sign it. There are plenty of Democrats and Republicans who think this is the most likely scenario at this moment.”