Congress is giving the American taxpayers a warning. It is once again not going to do its job. The United States is currently operating under a Continuing Resolution (CR), a stopgap funding bill passed in September because Congress could not pass an appropriations bill as they are required to by law. The authorization and appropriations bills are mandated to be passed by the end of the fiscal year, September 30.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) explains that CRs “are temporary spending bills that allow federal government operations to continue when final appropriations have not been approved by Congress and the President.” Without the emergency measure, there could be a gap in funding, shutting down the government. In the last 12 years, a government shutdown has happened twice, in 2014 and 2019. Effectively, congressional Democrats who hold the chairmanships of the appropriations committees are planning to punt the FY2023 defense appropriations bill into the funding future.
Congress Authorizes Spending, But No Funding
With the passage of the FY 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a bill is imminent. After that, government agencies will have the authority to spend money but no money to spend. And if the Democratic Congress does what it’s considering, having a full-year CR, then the Federal Government will be capped at the FY2022 topline spending ceiling and not allowed to start new programs. “Speculation is rising in Washington over how long Congress plans to punt its funding deadline if it opts for another continuing resolution for the current fiscal year,” The Hill’s Aris Folley writes, “and reports have surfaced that the White House [is] preparing for a one-year stopgap funding bill.”
Particularly onerous is the nonchalance with which the outgoing speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), suggests the possibility of the Biden administration’s agencies living with a year-long CR. “Passing an omnibus is our strong preference. But if we can’t have a solution, we have no choice but to keep the government open with a yearlong CR,” Pelosi opined. It’s worth noting that, in the last ten years – the majority of which passed under Pelosi’s speakership – not once did the House pass a spending bill on time. It’s worse when examining Congress’s historical willingness to pass budgets as required. In the last 47 years, the august legislative body on Capitol Hill has done its job three times.
The whole government suffers under perpetual CRs. A full-year CR would be devastating for agencies like the Department of Defense and Homeland Security, who have expanding national security responsibilities relying on increased funding in FY2023. For example, in FY2022, the Defense Department had an enacted appropriation of $757 billion. The recently passed House authorization had a topline for Defense of $858 billion. Still, with the CR in place, the Department of Defense can only spend at the FY2022 $757 billion figure and has been spending to that figure for the full first quarter of FY2023. Had Congress passed both the FY2023 NDAA and appropriations bills on time, the Defense Department would have had $101 billion to meet critical readiness, modernization needs, and to cover the crippling inflation impact.
Continuing Resolution Hurts National Security
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III explained the dilemma the current CR presents for national security in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY), Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and the chairs of the Senate and House appropriations committees. Austin said:
“Operating under a CR moves our budget backward, not forward, reducing our topline by at least $3 billion per month below the level President Biden requested. The impact of these cuts is compounded the longer our ability to enter into contracts is delayed…Under the CR Congress prohibits the military from commencing new initiatives, such as those requested by our theater commanders in the Indo-Pacific and around the world.”
Creating a bulwark against China’s military aggression depends on the Defense Department developing weapon systems to counter the People’s Republic of China. Congress has no leg to stand on, criticizing the military for falling behind in the race to stand up to Beijing while the legislators can’t or won’t provide timely funding. As a result, critical weapons systems needed in the Indo-Pacific are in funding jeopardy. “…[T]he CR would limit planned production increases for the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range, Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, and Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile Extended Range,” Elaine McCusker, former Acting Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, warned. “It would degrade hypersonic weapons development.”
Whenever Congress passes a Continuing Resolution, there is back-slapping and self-congratulation for averting a government shutdown in the nick of time. However, what a CR really is, is a deposition, a confession, convicting the legislators in their own words of not doing their job. The consequence is that US national security suffers.
The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliation.
