House Adjourns Early For Annual Summer Break, Leaving Much Appropriations Work Still To Do

The United States House of Representatives adjourned for its annual August break Thursday, a week ahead of schedule, an acknowledgment by the majority of the difficulty in finding enough Republican votes to pass appropriations bills and setting the stage for what could be two tense weeks of shutdown avoidance when they finally return in mid-September.

None of this, however, comes as much of a surprise these days. It’s become predictable in recent years that Congress won’t get appropriations for the next fiscal year done by the time the next fiscal year actually begins.

Still, new House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla. 4)was determined to at least try.

"A lot of people said we couldn’t do it," Cole said in an interview Thursday, "so I’m very pleased we’ve gotten all 12 bills out of committee."

In addition, Cole points out, that five of the appropriations bills have made it across the House floor, including the Department of the Interior Wednesday evening, which Cole says is critical for Oklahoma because it funds Indian health, Indian law enforcement, and Indian education.

"While we cut the overall spending (in the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act), which I’m very proud of having done that," Cole said, "We increased all three of those areas so that Oklahoma tribes will benefit from that."

In the upper chamber, meanwhile, just seven of the 12 appropriations bills have now made it out of committee; none have been brought up for a vote by the full Senate. What it all points to is the passage of a continuing resolution (CR) before the new fiscal year starts on October 1.

"We'll continue to try and get appropriations bills done in September," said Congressman Cole, "I just know, given the calendar, that we won’t get them all done."

Cole and others will advocate for a CR that extends current funding past the election but not beyond December, leaving it to the current Congress and administration, during the lame-duck session, to complete the appropriations work that it started.

"We know we’re going to have a new president, no matter who wins the election," said Cole, "they shouldn’t show up and have to worry about a government shutdown immediately...the new president takes some time to get their people in place, they’ve got to get Senate confirmation done, they’ve got to write their own budget, they shouldn’t have to do the work of the last administration and the last president."

Congresswoman Stephanie Bice (R-Okla. 5) agrees with Cole: "We’re going to have a lot of other things that are going to be on the table, including a debt ceiling discussion, a potential reconciliation package, and we really just need to clear deck as much as we can.