Brace Yourself for the Upcoming Spending Season

Congressional spending leaders are facing a tight time crunch less than four months before government funding runs out. Several different groups of lawmakers are trying to revisit the debt deal’s funding caps. House conservatives, Senate Republicans, and Democrats are looking for ways to ensure that priorities like disaster aid and immigration programs don’t get short shrift. Passing all 12 spending bills on both the House and Senate floors is a heavy lift, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are anxious to avoid a provision in the debt pact that would impose a 1 percent funding cut next year if appropriators can’t strike a deal to fund the government and resort to a short-term patch.