Congress faces government shutdown deadline: What it will take to avoid it

Congress is facing a government shutdown if they can't pass a funding bill by Friday night.

News On 6 spoke to CBS's Scott McFarlane on Thursday about what it will take to avert a shutdown and what we can expect if they don't come to an agreement.

Q: Where do we stand right now on a shutdown?

McFarlane: Yet again, on that precipice where you can just look over the cliff and see a government shutdown awaiting us. Just about 24 hours till the deadline for them to cut some agreement to avoid offices from closing and federal workers from being sent home. And they're flirting with it again. Every indication we've gotten over the past 18 months, as we've seen several of these, they'll come to some 11th-hour agreement before everybody goes home for the weekend. But they're cutting it so close on what is really just a plan to keep the government open six more months indicates this is a proxy war over something much bigger, the first real standoff where Democrats have leverage of this Trump administration. And though they don't want to force a shutdown on either side, they have to figure out how to work with each other during the Trump administration, which is difficult, considering how so many bridges have been burned so badly.

Q: CBS has reported that Elon Musk might be rooting for a shutdown. Could a shutdown benefit his desired cutbacks?

McFarlane: The critics argued for Elon Musk, who is trying to cut spending, cut programs, cut staffing at federal agencies, a shutdown could be a shot of nitroglycerin for those efforts, and that also is leverage against Democrats to prevent Donald Trump and Elon Musk from exacting more cutbacks during a shutdown. A lot of that’s in the calculation here. But you have Oklahoma Republicans, you have Republicans nationwide who believe they’ve already got this plan to keep the government open through September. You can fight again in September over all this. Why do so now? The “why do so now” is because this is the first moment of leverage Democrats have had for President Trump’s second term, and they seem keen on trying to figure out what to do with it.

Q: Speaking of those cutbacks, the Department of Education is cutting thousands of jobs. We've been talking about the Department of Education for weeks now. If this does happen, how will that be felt on a local level?

McFarlane: The Department of Education, according to its critics, and according to the Trump administration, has duplicative duties, ones that the local schools and state system can do on their own, that they don't need to have a federal Department of Education, but some of that is a misreading of what the Department of Education in Washington actually does. It doesn't handle your local curriculum. It doesn't handle the bussing of local school students or the hiring of teachers. It helps with federal financial aid applications for students who want to go to college. It helps with ensuring services are provided to students with disabilities. It helps with federal funding and grants. And the Trump administration is making a wager here and making an argument here. They don't think all of those services are necessary inside that agency. Critics say you cut the Department of Education, you ruin, or you risk ruining some of those services. We'll see how that plays out. But I think both sides agree this should not, should not impact how local schools operate, how they get kids to school, how they teach them there, how they get them home safely, feed them and service the community.