‘Hope Is Not a Plan’: Lawmakers Are Starting to Rally Around a Short-Term Funding Plan to Avoid a Shutdown

Top appropriators say they may need more time to negotiate a deal.

Tom Cole
Rep. Tom Cole, House Appropriations Committee chair. Tom Williams/AP

Negotiators on Capitol Hill have three more weeks to come up with a plan to avoid a government shutdown. But they’re already starting to concede that a short-term continuing resolution may be needed to keep the lights on.

Republican leadership, along with some appropriators and many Democrats, seem to be on the same page in wanting a CR which would fund the government at its current levels potentially through November, giving them more time to hammer out a final deal. The top appropriators in both chambers — known colloquially on the Hill as the “four corners” — huddled on Monday.

“We’re making good progress,” Rep. Tom Cole, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, told NOTUS, adding that more progress needs to be made with Democrats this week.