Congressional leaders are back at the drawing board mere days after after President-Elect Trump and Vice President-Elect Vance issued a statement on X opposing the stopgap spending and disaster relief package.

And now it’s reported that the bill will be rejected.

After all the struggle to get the bill just released, it is not clear that a government shutdown can be averted. (The current stopgap bill runs out on Friday; Congress could delay enactment into the weekend, but after that there will be a shutdown. Happy holidays, everyone.)

Trump and Vance want a simpler short-term bill that does include disaster relief, and that includes an increase or suspension of the debt limit now. Apparently, they would like Democrats to be seen as “owning” the debt limit increase, and getting it off the plate of the new administration.

We at CHN have been compiling reports about the released bill, but are far from having a comprehensive set of details. As you’ve no doubt seen, it would extend appropriations through March 14. There are disappointments for advocates:  the IRS will not be able to tap $20b it had previously been allocated during the time of the CR – making it harder to go after wealthy tax cheats; a number of key programs, such as Head Start, emergency food (TEFAP), and WIC, did not get increases to meet local disaster needs. There are increases for defense; some disaster relief; a one-year extension of the farm bill including aid for farmers. There’s a pay raise for Congress. Much of this was sought by Republican lawmakers.

There are long-sought important provisions, including reauthorizations of the Older Americans Act, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA – job training programs), the Second Chance Act, and codifications of  reentry employment programs. Certain longstanding health programs with bipartisan support were extended with additional funding for Community Health Centers. Reforms relating to Pharmaceutical Benefits Managers were included – these are reported as having bipartisan support. Protections for SNAP beneficiaries whose benefits are stolen electronically were extended for four years. Child care centers got $500 million in disaster relief.

Should Congress have waited so long to extend important health and other programs? Should it have waited so long to provide disaster relief? Should it have failed to pass full appropriations bills on time?  Well, no. This Congress has repeatedly failed to do its job because of the intransigence of extreme members. They don’t seem to care if people’s needs are met, including their own constituents.

If longstanding programs expire; if people are denied food because the SNAP program is not allowed to protect them from theft; if people have to suffer longer from natural disasters; if workers don’t get paid and the basic work of government is stymied – this will be the work of extremists.

Now, we’ll have to see what comes next.