Elisavet Kammas '26
Newly elected speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, has to reach a government funding deal by November 17 - the day that a short spending law concludes. If Johnson doesn’t have a deal by the three week deadline, he could risk a government shutdown.
Johnson is “one of just two powerful Republican leaders in Congress who shape policy and politics nationwide.” (Jennifer Shutt, Next for a new U.S. house speaker: Three-week deadline to dodge a government shutdown 2023). Knowing that the government needs more time to pass the necessary bills, Johnson plans on supporting another stopgap bill. He is aiming to enforce short-term initiatives that will keep agencies funded to at least mid-January.
There also needs to be negotiations between both political parties on how to move forward from the government’s current situation. Johnson has spoken to Rep. Dan Bishop about government funding, although decisions were not made. No one knows what a full-year bill would look like and how the House and Senate would work on that.
Whether the government will successfully make it to the deadline, is a question that people want to know. Without at least a short-term solution by November 17, agencies risk losing the funding that they have currently.
If the government makes a deal or not, is not as important as whether or not this new deal would actually work. What would the long term effects be for the U.S.? Will the government need to come up with more solutions to these arising problems? With every answer given, more questions are asked.
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