A government shutdown increasingly looks inevitable as GOP opponents of a stopgap in the Senate seek to drag out the process ahead of a midnight Sunday deadline.
Opponents of the Senate stopgap, which is backed by leaders in both parties, are delaying a vote to give the House a chance to pass its own continuing resolution to fund government.
Senate conservatives want to give Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) more leverage to negotiate spending cuts and changes to immigration policy, leverage that would diminish if the Senate jams the House by moving first and passing a relatively clean stopgap.
It’s unclear if House Republicans will be able to rally around their own funding measure or if McCarthy would put the Senate bill up for a vote in the House once it passes the upper chamber.
These agencies have definitely made their fair share of mistakes/coverups and have had plenty of corrupt staff, but the overall quality of our health, food, air, and water would be significantly worse without them. I hate cliches, but we can’t let perfect be the enemy of good. For the most part, the scientists and bureaucrats that work at these agencies do their best with the extremely limited resources we give them. Their best is not perfect, but it is SO much better than nothing.