Fears of a government shutdown mount as Congress leaves for SIX WEEKS: Lawmakers are under pressure to avoid an economic meltdown as they leave DC for summer vacation

The stench of airplane fumes and a looming fear of a government shutdown permeated the air in the nation’s capital Thursday night as lawmakers skipped the city for an extended one-room break that passed just one of its 12 annual spending bills.

The House does not return to Washington until September 12 — at which point there are only 12 days in session before the end of the fiscal year on September 30. The Senate returns a week early.

Congress must use that handful of days to push through 12 appropriation bills — which supplement the budgets for every federal agency.

The House passed one appropriation bill, 11 more to go, and the Senate passed none.

On Thursday, the House passed the $317.4 billion Military Construction VA bill, usually the least controversial of the 12 spending measures, a bill that provides funding for veterans’ benefits and military construction. Democrats opposed the bill, saying Republicans stuffed it with extremist amendments.

House GOP leaders scrapped plans to hold a vote on a $25.3 billion farm bill after the party’s far-right faction demanded deeper cuts.

If the House and Senate fail to agree on 12 separate spending bills to pass — a long overdue outcome at best — the nation could be heading for a government shutdown.

It looks less likely that the House alone will pass 12 separate spending bills in 12 days. Even if they were, those bills would likely be billions below the level of Senate spending bills.

Congress could also pass an overarching omnibus bill, which puts all spending priorities in one vote, or a short-term rolling resolution — which would keep spending at fiscal 2023 levels for a period of time and buy more time to settle disagreements. to solve.

As January 1 approaches without a year-long spending deal, there will be one percent cuts across the board — including military and veterans spending —.

Conservatives have pledged to use the appropriations bills to advance their agenda by targeting further austerity. In one example, the Republicans’ 2024 commerce, justice, science and related agency funding bill would cut the FBI budget by $1 billion — a 9 percent cut for the agency they say is “armed” against conservatives .

The House and Senate must straighten out their differences over 12 annual spending or come up with an alternative option to avoid a government shutdown

Some members of the far-right Freedom Caucus insisted they were not afraid of a shutdown – demanding a return to fiscal year 2022 spending levels below those agreed in the debt ceiling agreement.

They said they would not accept cuts through “dissolutions” – as some had hoped to cut to make up for the $115 billion difference between 2022 and 2023 by reclaiming unused funds such as Covid-19 aid.

“We shouldn’t be afraid of a government shutdown,” Republican Rep. Bob Good told reporters this week. “Most of what we do here is bad anyway.”

Rep. Andy Biggs also said he is not afraid of a closure.

“The House is going to say no, we’re going to pull a good Republican bill out of the House and force the Senate and the White House to accept it, or we won’t move forward,” Biggs said. “What would happen if the Republicans for once put the Democrats down and were the ones who refuse to give in and betray the American people and the trust they placed in us when they gave the majority? So we are not afraid of a government shutdown.’

But Biggs, for example, predicted that there would be no closure.

“I don’t believe you see a government shutdown,” the Arizona Republican told reporters.

“You’ll see some of the 12 approps bills come out in what we call a minivan, and then you’ll see an ongoing solution for the short term.”

Meanwhile, the House and Senate have passed their own versions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) – the annual spending bill that funds the Pentagon. Now they will have to settle their differences and pass a consensus version to send to the president’s office.

The House version contained controversial amendments restricting abortion and access to health care for transgender people — measures that caused the typically bipartisan legislation to lose Democratic support.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer met Thursday to discuss prospects for a compromise on spending measures and other priorities.

“I really liked our conversations about credit,” said the speaker. “Neither of us wants to shut down the government.”