How Do Lawmakers Fund the Government When the Government Is Being Defunded?

“It makes it much harder to write legislation that actually responds to the latest developments, when programs are switching on and off again like a two-year-old is playing with a light switch,” the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Patty Murray, said.

Tom Cole

Tom Cole listens as the panel meets to prepare spending bills. J. Scott Applewhite/AP

As Congress approaches a funding deadline and the prospect of a government shutdown gets realer by the minute, lawmakers are confronting a difficult question: How do you write a spending bill when spending is getting slashed every day?

Hardly anyone has an answer.

Some just want President Donald Trump to handle it. Some think Congress should codify the cuts as soon as possible. Others want it done through reconciliation. And still some others want to keep on spending like normal and just roll back the dollars when they can.