Surprising no one that has paid any attention over the last several years, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) says they may not be able to pass an omnibus spending bill before the Friday deadline.
"It might take us more than just this week to get these issues put together correctly," Ryan told a radio station in his hometown of Janesville, Wis. [...]
Appropriators had hoped to release the text of the massive spending bill by Monday, but that goal may not be in sight given the state of negotiations.
You don't say?
As you might have guessed, Congress has reached an impasse over controversial policy riders that conservatives demand be attached to the government funding measure. Among other things, a significant number of Republicans want to use the measure to block the resettlement of refugees while others still want to defund Planned Parenthood. There's a patchwork of conservative tribes and factions in Congress that make it exceedingly difficult to pass anything.
Sometimes I'm amazed we can still rename post offices without defunding a crucial public institution in the process.
The original deadline for funding the government was October. This week's deadline is an extension of the previous deadline. Second verse, same as the first.