Congress returned from their August recess to immediately face several annual deadlines and “must pass” bills, including funding the government, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and pending deadlines on healthcare subsidies. September 30^th brings the end of the fiscal year, and Congress have yet to send even one of the twelve federal appropriations bills to the President and are unlikely to because they must pass with bipartisan support. Sadly, this is familiar territory, the last time Congress managed to pass all twelve bills on time was 1997, and the most they passed on time since then was five. Therefore, the debate in Congress is not what spending levels to pass the appropriations bills, but how far to kick-the-can with a “continuing resolution” (CR), or whether to potentially shut-down government, which Congress last did in 2018, during President Trump’s first term. All is not lost in the hope for bipartisan legislation, the NDAA has a long streak of bipartisan support, and there are active conversations about efforts to achieve permitting reform, highway programs, and prescription benefit reforms, among other ideas. But the muscle memory for bipartisanship is atrophied and we are soon approaching positioning for mid-year elections, so the window of bipartisan may shrink further.

-Brian Wild