Legislature Applies Yet Another Bandaid—Staves Off Another Government Shutdown

Just a few short hours before the government was expected to run out of funds, forcing a shutdown, the US Senate passed a continuing resolution (CR) Thursday. The CR is expected to fund the government over the time frame of November 21st to December 20th.

The Senate vote was reportedly 74-20. The vote was needed as the spending bill currently in place is scheduled to expire on Thursday at 11:59:59 pm. The Democrats and Republicans on the hill are still butting heads with President Trump over his continued push for border wall funding. However, that particular funding was not reported as having been included in the CR.

Less than 24 hours before the CR was scheduled to be voted on by the House, the Democratic House leadership presented a spending package that they had created two months ago, in September. The package was then voted on by the current Democrat-controlled House.

This situation mirrored the shutdown that took place before Christmas of last year. In that instance, the leadership of the House successfully passed a CR in the earlier months of 2018 and then chose to move the appropriations over until the holiday season.

At the advice of the House Freedom Caucus, President Trump chose to make his stand and held to his guns on his border wall funding. As a result, the most prolonged government shutdown in recent history began and lasted over a month, well into January 2019.

It is no secret that Trump and the Democrats are continually butting heads, and are so far from agreeing or seeing eye to eye on anything, that honestly not much is getting done. Each party thinks that their vision is the best one for the country, and as such, is unable even to begin to discuss any suggestions by the other party.

However, since their disagreements and hard-headedness has shown to cause a government shutdown in the past, it would appear that each party does not want that same situation to happen again this time around. As a result, they have passed the CR, which will prevent the shutdown. The CR bill that was passed on Thursday was more of a bandaid than a cure.

At the moment, the government will continue to remain up and running. However, a more permanent solution needs to be found, or in a few weeks or months, the Legislature will be back in the same situation and predicament as they were this week.

The word is that Trump is going to officially sign off on the CR, which will hold the government shutdown over until another more sturdy and secure agreement can be offered.

So, what’s the verdict—you decide.

Instead of creating bandaids for these types of situations, would it not be a better idea to find a lasting solution?