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The On the Hill: Breaking Down DC podcast is a collection of sharing more about what’s happening in DC without the bias, ways for you to get involved with the US government, and interviews with friends, colleagues who can help pull back the proverbial curtain of Washington, DC. Katherine Getty, host of the OTH podcast, is a 10-year Washingtonian who lives and breathes politics.
Katherine Getty 0:01
Hi, and welcome to the on the Hill podcast with me your host, Katherine Getty. Each Thursday, I'll peel back the curtain of what happens in Washington, from breaking down current events without bias, to interviews with fellow political nerds, and even and maybe most importantly, ways for you to get involved with our US government. Welcome back to another episode of The on the Hill podcast with me your host, Katherine Getty, I am recording very late in the week I'm recording Tuesday night shout out to my amazing producers, Shawn and chase wizards behind us, they they make this podcast sound really, really professional and crisp and clean every single week. And I hate that I am getting this episode to them very late. I'm very sorry. But I wanted to record later. For one key reason this week's episode is going to be a bit of a departure from what we've been doing the last couple of weeks, I think it's super important that we do some of this level setting of house senate executive branch. We'll be doing the judicial branch in the weeks to come. But we are, as this episode comes out, it will be on Leap Day, February 29. And the next day will be one of the potential, you know funding cliffs. So I wanted this episode, to be very timely to kind of give you the lay of the land to remind you kind of where government funding is from the hole, and then talk about what we with a massive about what I think potentially could happen in the weeks to come. So where is government funding? You've definitely been seeing in the news, threats of a looming government shutdown. So right now, how is the government being funded? The government is being funded right now through a continuing resolution. I've done some episodes on it. I'll include a shout out to those episodes in the show notes. But a continuing resolution is basically continuing on pre existing appropriations levels. So right now, we are in fiscal year 2024. The government is being funded based off of fiscal year 2023 numbers. Why is that you may ask? Well, Congress continues to debate and have differences of opinion, maybe that's a nice way to say it. Differences of opinion on how tax dollars should be spent. So we are in a continuing resolution. And we're actually in a laddered CR. So continuing resolution, the abbreviation and DC loves a good abbreviation is CR. We are in the latter, tr where part of the government will the government funding will expire as of March 1, and part of the government funding will expire on March 8 apart. If we think back to last fall, some of the reasons they did this laddered CR approach was so they wanted to hopefully clear the decks and get some of the easier pieces of funding across and what's going to expire on March 1 includes the department's of agriculture, energy, transportation, Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, as well as other programs. And then the march 8, deadline is defense. You know, Department of State Homeland Security, labor, hate, you know, labor Health and Human Services. Some of the more stickier are problematic, where there's more differences, not problematic for funding, but problematic because there's more differences. And the idea was is okay, we can get some sort of negotiation on part of the government. And let's get that moving. And then we'll get the the stickier issue solved. Something I have never seen done, I'd have to go back and see if this has ever been an approach before. But this this March one, and March 8 is a continuation of another laddered car that was into January of this year. I think that we've really started to see some momentum over the last couple of weeks. And I think that there's a potential for some sort of deal coming together. But as it stands, when this episode is being recorded, and will, you know, you'll hear it on February 29th. If you're listening in real time is, as of right now, we're in a continuing resolution. So what's next, we understand now, what is a continuing resolution, but what's next, obviously, march 1, you know, if you're listening in real time is tomorrow. And my best guess based on a meeting that happened at the White House. So President Biden convened the four, they call them the big four. And so that is the Senate majority leader who is Chuck Schumer, a democratic New York Senate Minority Leader, Republican Mitch McConnell, and the House House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, and then HOUSE MINORITY LEADER Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat out of New York. So those four leaders along with President Biden sat in a room I As of Tuesday, February 27, to say, all right, where are we at on not only these government funding, but think about it broadly, you've been hearing the news, Ukraine, Israel funding Taiwan funding border issues board, how are we, you know, addressing the border, may that be via funding or even policies. And so you're seeing kind of all those things happen. Laying on top of the funding conversations. Congress is good with a deadline. So we will see kind of these, everything kind of is kind of getting crammed together to some degree. And in the conversation today, it was laid out all right, we need a little bit more time. What we're hearing as of right now, is that likely that March 1 deadline will be extended to March 8. And the march 8 deadline will be extended to believe, march 22. But I think that shows, as I mentioned before, that there has been some good momentum, we are seeing some momentum, you know, they've been able to decide, alright, here are the top line numbers, here's how much we're going to spend. Here's what the subcommittee's are going to spend. That allocation that break down to the subcommittee's is huge for them to get their work done. So, you know, Hope springs eternal, that some sort of deal is going to come together. I think as it stands right now, I am hopeful I'm going to put money on the fact that we don't go into some sort of government shutdown, I think you will hear concerns from or Conservative members, and maybe the House or the Senate saying border funding is important. We need to shut it down, things like that. I don't think a majority of members both on Republican and Democrat side, think that that's going to solve some of the concerns that are that were laid to bear or that have been laid to bear by some of these other members. That's not to say it's not real for their them and their constituents. But on the whole, I think that people think that funding the government, which is you know, fundamental, is going to continue and happen. So this is a little bit more of an off the cuff episode. Coming to you live from DC giving you the scoop on, you know, today we talked about what is a continuing resolution, which is how the government is being funded right now, what's happening? What are kind of the deadlines that are approaching and what should we be looking for, and maybe, just maybe I ended on a little bit of a guess of what we think is going to happen with funding over the next couple of weeks. Next week, I'll definitely cover some sort of a recap of where the government funding lands. Hopefully, we're not in government shutdown, hopefully that my guess what we've been seeing kind of in the news over the last couple hours of March 8 will be that, you know, new March 1 deadline, and the new March 8 deadline will be March 22. For those remaining programs. We'll see more to come. But thank you so much for joining another episode of On the hill. As always, thank you so much for tuning in to this episode. I really enjoy getting to give you kind of recaps of what's happening in Washington lay lay out what's you know, what you see maybe in the news and give you some more context without the bias. Thank you. Thank you, thank you. As always share this with someone you know, share with someone you don't know. I want to grow this thing I want more people to to enjoy the US Congress as much as I do. Maybe that's a hope spring eternal Mullah. But thank you so much for tuning in. And I will see you next week.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai