In the October, 2021, Washington Report, we reported that the House had passed nine of twelve appropriations bills, while the Senate had to that point failed to pass a single appropriations bill. In the twelve weeks since that report, no visible progress towards passing a budget for FY2022 has been made. The Senate has still failed to pass a single bill. The House still has three bills that have not been passed. So not a single one has made it to President Biden’s desk for final signature.

Thus far, the government has avoided a shutdown only through repeated Continuing Resolutions (CRs). The latest, signed on December 3, 2021, funds the government through February 18, 2022. While there have been recent reports of vague “constructive conversations” towards a deal to fund the government through regular order, another CR to avoid a shutdown is not out of the question.

CRs are better than a shutdown in the same way that getting run over by a golf cart is preferable to being hit by a truck. To read more about the true cost of Continuing Resolutions, check out our article in this Washington Report entitled “The True Cost of Continuing Resolutions.”