The thing is, it’s not like it’s a surprise. There’s a deadline known in advance every time. What’s with this “we don’t have time to get it done”? I don’t know, start dealing with it earlier? But no, we need maybe another month to maybe get it resolved. So stupid.
McCarthy managed (barely) to get a vote passed last night that will let the House take up the Defense, Homeland Security, Agriculture, and State Department appropriations bills this week. Still not guaranteed that any of them will pass, as there will be dozens of amendments offered on abortion, the border, Ukraine, moon lasers and any other bugbears of the hard right.
And whether or not they pass has zero impact on a government shutdown, as the House is miles away from the Senate on these bills and there’s no possibility of any of them being enacted by Saturday. But McCarthy seems to think that getting something, anything, passed will let his crazies vent their spleen on the budget and help grease the wheels for a continuing resolution. I’m not sure why he thinks this, but hope springs eternal in McCarthy’s heart.
Replace “hope” with “desperation” and I’m with you.
It took six hours just for debate and amendments on the Defense bill; there’s still the Homeland Security, State, and Agriculture bills to get through - and then have votes on all four of them.
On top of that, there is at least one amendment that got into the Defense bill that pretty much guarantees it is DOA in the Senate; none of the money can be used to “implement the administration’s executive orders related to climate change” (so, replacing any of the gas-fueled vehicles, including ones that will never leave Army bases, with electric ones is out?).
Also, here’s one they’re not going to like in Beijing; an amendment that requires that all maps used by the DoD that include Taiwan make it clear that Taiwan is not part of the People’s Republic of China. Then again, Beijing probably wouldn’t be too happy anyway that the map says “Taiwan” in the first place.
Just a datapoint, but I’m a longtime fed employee, and to date I’ve received not a word about possible shutdown. Usually there are at least a couple of emails, if not a staff meeting. No idea why sometimes it seems to be considered “a big deal,” yet this time it isn’t.
If I were a congressman, and also a scamp, I’d add a similar rider that all maps that show Turkey must label the city “Istanbul (NOT Constantinople)”.
My datapoint (also long-time fed) is my agency has been all over it for the last two weeks with lots of emails, meetings, and policies. Pretty much same level of attention as 2019 going into it.
edit: I think a lot of what differs from agency to agency is how the in-agency middle-to-top brass is reading the tea leaves each time.
We are likely all going to be designated essential (with 1 or 2 truly boneheaded exceptions) and are going to be expected to continue working as usual. Maybe a tad more inefficiency and incompetence than usual! 
I’ll be deep in the cold, cold ground before I recognize the fall of Constantinople!
Ah yes, there’s the difference probably, we’re at the “10 people out of 300 are essential” level so most of us will be sitting it out like last time.
I’m a little surprised that they don’t add that maps must show that all of Jerusalem (choose one: is independent of any county; is an integral part of Israel).
It only took 90 minutes to get through Homeland Security; they may actually get through all of these by tonight.
Interesting amendment in the DHS bill: funding to “emphasize the importance of reaffirming the states’ constitutional and sovereign right to defend their border.” I can think of one Senator that would give it a No vote pretty much just on that.
We’re pretty much all non-essential, and while we had some discussion about it at our monthly branch meeting a couple of weeks ago, we haven’t heard anything official about procedures yet. I suspect that they will probably wait till the last possible moment, so as to not appear to have given up on trying to pass a budget. Chances are we will get some preparation warning on Friday as to what to expect, and then if when it happens we all show up to work one last time on Monday to get anything you need out of your office, update your contact information, put a specifically worded voice mail and email auto response, and then head home and don’t work until it your are told to come back.
I think he realizes that there is no chance of actually avoiding a shutdown. But he needs to put in the effort to actually get something out the door before the deadline. If he gets something passed then he can claim that the shut down is the Democrats fault for not being willing to compromise on these “very reasonable” demands, which will probably be enough to convince knee-jerk both-siders to continue their radicl centrism. If he’s got nothing but dysfunction to show then there really is no way that the Republicans can avoid owning the bloody mess.
Update: when Congress recessed at just before 1 AM, it had pretty much finished Defense and Agriculture, and was in the middle of adding additional amendments to Homeland Security. There is also State to get through.
Just got a very uninformative email. Curiously, it states in unqualified terms that “After the lapse ends, furloughed and excepted employees will receive retroactive pay for the furlough period as soon as possible.”
I always assumed that would be the case, but just thought the plain statement odd.
As a federal employee, these repeated things have the tiny and cumulating effect of lessening my dedication to excelling at my job. If the knuckleheads in Congress can’t even timely ensure funding - and incur considerable costs through their dithering - it is easy to just say, “‘Good enough’ is good enough.”
At least you’ll get paid eventually.
The email I got from my contractor says I have to use leave or go unpaid.
Do congress critters continue to get paid during a shutdown?
I think that is one of the Republicans main purposes here. Wreck the government.
Yes, the Constitution requires that Members of Congress be paid even during a government shutdown. However, their staffs and employees of the various Congressional support service agencies (Capitol Police, Sergeants-at-Arms, etc.) do not get paid.
Time to embrace the mantra, “Freedoms; just another word for not caring about the quality of your work”.
“Oh, this Republican Representative is calling for police assistance because some MAGAnut is harassing them? Well, I’ll get right on that, just after I figure out how I’m going to pay for groceries today.”