For reasons that don't pass the smell test, Congress is going to vote on a continuing resolution that will fund the federal government for one more week to avoid a shutdown tomorrow.
On Wednesday night, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, introduced the one-week bill to fund the government through May 5, predicting leadership would announce a long-term deal shortly.
"This continuing resolution will continue to keep the government open and operating as normal for the next several days, in order to finalize legislation to fund the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year," he said in a statement.
The idea that Congress would pass a one-week resolution wasn't really on my radar because nothing is going to change over the next week. The bill they pass on or before May 5th will look almost exactly the same as the one-week resolution, it will simply last longer.
Congressional Republicans, or at least House Republicans, appear to be under the illusion that they're going to strike a deal to fund a border wall or reorganize the entire healthcare system in a single week. Even if the House managed to do either of those things, the Senate is not going to and the federal government will still need to be funded.
Given the capacity for Republican delusion, I suppose it wouldn't be a surprise if another one-week funding resolution is passed next week.
You may recall that, while President Obama was still in office, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sought to pass a continuing resolution to fund the federal government until the end of May, but House Republicans insisted that the process of repealing Obamacare would be over so quickly there would be no need to fund the federal government for that long.