“It’s slowly grinding to a halt,” said Sen. Chris Murphy said of the appropriations process. | Getty Lawmakers eye omnibus as spending bills lag

As Congress prepares to hightail it out of here until September, lawmakers are set to leave their most fundamental constitutional duty — funding the government — almost entirely unfinished.

Officially, the House and Senate are still plowing through appropriations bills, and a few more might even get passed before Congress recesses next week. But the legislative window is closing rapidly, and most of the 12 spending measures will not have reached the floor of either chamber. The beginning of the end of this year’s appropriations process has arrived.


“It’s slowly grinding to a halt,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Lawmakers are now looking toward the same measure that has been used for decades: a continuing resolution to keep the government afloat past the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30 and another hated omnibus to fund the government in a single $1 trillion bill.

Internal debate has already begun over how long a spending stopgap should last. Senior appropriators, like Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), are pushing to have any continuing resolution end by December, to allow Congress to pass an omnibus and finish the appropriations work by the end of the year. Some conservatives hope to have a continuing resolution stretch all the way to March to avoid any action in a lame-duck session. November’s election results are sure to play a major role in whatever lawmakers decide.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment for those hoping for a successful appropriations process this year is that all the pieces were seemingly in place. Last year’s bipartisan budget law established total spending levels, letting appropriators get to work writing bills even though Congress skipped passing a budget. There was also leadership buy-in with both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan vowing to make passing spending bills a priority and evidence of the GOP’s ability to govern.

But partisan clashes and a crowded calendar have led to the seemingly inevitable omnibus with 12 bills wrapped into one. “Looking at history, there’s probably a good chance, don’t you think?” said Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), a longtime appropriator.

Many members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees are trying to look at the bright side, and say there is some real reason to cheer.

The Senate committee approved its twelfth and final bill last week, the fastest it has done so since 1988. Nearly all were approved on 30-0 votes — a testament to the committee’s bipartisan nature, even in a sharply polarized moment. It’s the second straight year, under Chairman Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), that the panel approved all 12 bills.

Things also have gone pretty smoothly in the House committee, which has moved 10 spending bills so far. The last two measures, to fund the State Department and the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education departments, are likely to be approved this month. That would be a nice going-away present for Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), who is set to leave his post at the end of the year because of term limits.

Shepherding appropriations bills through the floor, however, has been a far rockier experience.

Legislation to fund military construction and veterans programs passed the House only after GOP leadership convinced a handful of Republicans to switch their votes and oppose an amendment to protect LGBT employees of federal contractors from discrimination. “Shame! Shame!” Democrats shouted on the floor as the amendment went down. A week later, the amendment was adopted on a different bill funding energy and water programs — and then, the bill was handily defeated as Republicans jumped ship.

To regain control and prevent Democrats from offering the same amendment to other spending bills, GOP leaders began restricting what amendments would see votes on the floor, a major reversal for Ryan, who had pledged to hold an open process on appropriations bills. The decision paved the way for passage of measures to fund the Pentagon and the legislative branch. House Republicans had hoped to pass the financial services appropriations bill last month, but postponed consideration after the Democrats seized the floor with a sit-in to protest the lack of action on gun control. The House could pass that bill this month, and perhaps the bill funding the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency.

The Senate has largely avoided the chaos of the House, but it hasn’t sent more bills to the finish line. The parties did work closely to craft the dozen bills, adhering to the budget caps set last year and largely steering clear of conservative policy provisions that could draw Democratic filibusters.

The effort worked, for a while. The Senate passed three bills with strong bipartisan votes, to fund transportation and housing agencies; military construction and veterans programs; and energy and water programs. The bill to fund the Department of Justice also reached the floor, but it stalled over a heated fight over gun control, and McConnell sidelined it. Appropriations bills also have had to compete for floor time on other matters, including legislation to combat the Zika virus and to provide debt relief to Puerto Rico. One other spending bill that could still get passed before the Senate departs in mid-July is the Pentagon funding measure, which McConnell has moved to consider.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), another Appropriations Committee member, noted that the Senate didn’t pass a single standalone appropriations bill last year, due to a Democratic blockade. “We’re making progress,” she said. “Not as much as I’d like.”

Not a single appropriations bill has made it to President Barack Obama’s desk. The only one that has a chance is the veterans funding measure, but that is attached to the Zika package, which has inflamed partisan divisions and will only consume more oxygen on Capitol Hill.

When lawmakers return after Labor Day, they will have less than four weeks before the fiscal year ends. That will not leave much time to pass other spending bills, though McConnell has said he would like to return to the appropriations process come September. Ryan, meanwhile, refuses to discuss the prospect of a continuing resolution, which will be necessary to avoid a government shutdown past Sept. 30.

“I don’t want to start talking about CR’s because then that means we’re shortchanging the process,” Ryan told reporters late last month, even as the process was running aground.

If Congress does pass an omnibus, the basis will be the 12 bills written by the House and Senate Committees, so all this year’s work is not for naught.

But there's a growing sense that the entire system for funding the government — which was designed in the 1970s and has rarely worked as intended — needs an overhaul.

“I think we spend an awful lot of time sorting through a process that is by and large a fiction,” Murphy said. “It might be better to admit that it is all in the service of an omnibus, rather than pretending like we’re going to pass these bills.”