By
Ed Kilgore,
political columnist for Intelligencer since 2015
The Republican Congress is facing an uphill struggle to meet its obligations prior to the midterm elections. As chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and Donald Trump’s closest ally in an effort to massively increase defense spending, the late Lindsey Graham was poised to be a key player. Now that he’s gone, the huge mess facing Congress has only gotten worse.
There is only one thing Congress absolutely must do before November. Funding for most of the federal government will lapse on October 1 if appropriations bills are not approved. These bills require bipartisan support in the Senate, and Democrats are not inclined to compromise with the GOP on spending priorities. So while a few noncontroversial spending bills might sneak through, most will not. That means Congress must either pass a stopgap spending measure to punt these conflicts to after the midterms or let major portions of the federal government shut down. Right now the odds of avoiding a shutdown of some sort are not good. That’s a problem for Republicans, who are in charge of the federal government and will likely get the lion’s share of blame for an Election Day shutdown.