Biden Signs Spending Bill to Avert Midnight Shutdown
Happy Friday! We’ve spent the day scouring the interwebs and other sources for important fiscal news. We can tell you, for example, that President Joe Biden late last night signed into law H.R. 6363, continuing resolution passed by the House and Senate on a bipartisan basis to avert a shutdown at midnight tonight by extending federal funding through January 19 for some parts of the government and through February 2 for other parts. Biden reportedly signed the bill at the Legion of Honor Museum, where he held a dinner for members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum.
Biden’s signature on the temporary spending bill pushes off additional fights over the federal budget, but only briefly — and the dual deadlines set by House Republicans create the risk of two partial government shutdowns as the House and Senate are likely to clash over differing visions for federal spending. But that confrontation may have to wait until after lawmakers deal with another fight they have set up, namely the one over the Biden administration’s $106 billion supplemental budget request, including aid to Israel and Ukraine as well as border security funding. Congress is expected to turn its attention to those issues when lawmakers return from their Thanksgiving recess.
For now, since it’s Friday night, we might suggest you do what members of the House and Senate already did earlier this week: Head home, prepare for the upcoming holiday and gear up for the final weeks of 2023 and what promises to be a dauntingly wild new year.
Enjoy the weekend! We’ll be back in your inbox on Monday!
Quote of the Week
“It is so much work that goes into preparing these things — really weeks of prep when they’re threatening it — and then most of it is just wasted work that needs to be thrown out anyway.”
− Jennifer Pahlka, deputy chief technology officer under the Obama administration, quoted in The Washington Post in an article looking at how disruptive and problematic the threat of government shutdowns can be even as some federal workers have grown numb to what the article says “is widely described as the stupidity of the nation’s budget process.”
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Fiscal News Roundup
- Biden Signs a Bill Averting a Government Shutdown for Now, With Israel and Ukraine Aid Still Stalled – Associated Press
- Shutdown Prep Is Exhausting Washington. At Least the Bartenders Are Happy – Washington Post
- Summers Says ‘Transitory Factors’ Behind Inflation Are Now Easing – Bloomberg
- Pockets of Price Deflation Might Be Around the Corner — Just Ask Walmart – Axios
- Oil Prices Fall to Four-Month Low as Inflation Slows – Axios
- Want to Know What’s Bedeviling Biden? TikTok Economics May Hold Clues – New York Times
- IRS Urged to Crack Down on Wealthy Tax Cheats in Puerto Rico – Bloomberg
- The Inescapable Ad Campaign for a Wonky Drug Policy Debate – Roll Call
- America Is Facing Its 'Worst Rate of Hunger' in Years, Food Banks Say. Here's Why – USA Today
- IRS Takes Aim at Environmental Write-Offs in Tax Evasion Crackdown – The Hill
- White House Taps Vanderbilt Oncologist to Lead National Cancer Institute – The Hill
- CDC Releases 77,000 More Doses of RSV Shot for Infants – Washington Post
- Senate Democrats Demand Answers From Manufacturers Over RSV Drug Shortage – The Hill
- Trump’s Plans if He Returns to the White House Include Deportation Raids, Tariffs and Mass Firings – Associated Press
Views and Analysis
- This Is What’s Become of the House – Molly Reynolds, New York Times
- I Will Fight Anyone Who Says Congressional Republicans Are Competent – Dana Milbank, Washington Post
- The Hidden Biases at Play in the U.S. Senate – Dan Balz, Clara Ence Morse and Nick Mourtoupalas, Washington Post
- Eliminating the Women’s Bureau Won’t Balance the Budget – Betsey Stevenson, Bloomberg
- Congress’ Games Mean People Go Hungry – Jacqueline Benitez, The Hill
- The Fed’s Decisions Now Could Alter the 2024 Elections – Jeff Sommer, New York Times
- Foolish Chatter About Recession – Robert Kuttner, American Prospect
- Dean Phillips Versus Bidenomics – Theodoric Meyer and Leigh Ann Caldwell, Washington Post
- How Gretchen Whitmer Is Quietly Solving a Big Problem for Democrats – Greg Sargent, Washington Post