Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) criticized on Jan. 22 President Trump’s new proposal to end the partial government shutdown. (The Washington Post)
The record-long impasse — along with the failures of past efforts — makes a strong argument for passing a bill that would take the option off the table.
Hundreds of thousands of federal workers will soon go without their second paycheck this month, as the 32-day shutdown drags on with no end in sight. But if there’s a silver lining for them, it might be this: The messier this gets, the more momentum there could be for a mechanism to effectively outlaw future shutdowns.
Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) on Tuesday introduced a bill called the Stop STUPIDITY Act. In the event of a lapse in government funding, the act would reinstate funding levels from the previous fiscal year — except for Congress and the office of the president, which would not receive funding until they reached an agreement.
Warner’s Republican colleague Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) reintroduced his own proposal last week. Rather than shut down the government in the absence of a budget, it would institute an across-the-board 1 percent funding cut for all agencies and would cut another 1 percent every 90 days that no agreement is reached.
View the complete January 23 article by Aaron Blake on the The Washington Post website.