On Capitol Hill, 'See You in September' Is A Refrain Without Romance
Some years back a hit song filled the summertime airwaves with its chorus of "See You In September."
It was meant to be a lover's promise of joyful reunion at summer's end.
But to use those words in Washington, D.C., right now sounds more like a warning ... or even a threat.
That's because when Congress returns after Labor Day and official business resumes, the agenda will be heavy, the deadlines tight and the atmosphere fraught with potential fiscal disaster.
The end of the fiscal year comes on Sept. 30. That's the deadline for the spending bills for the new fiscal year. And that homework didn't get done before Congress left on its August recess.
Those spending bills really matter because without them the government starts to shut down on Oct. 1. We have seen this happen as recently as 2013, with substantial consequences and overwhelmingly negative public reaction.
Polls show the public is in no after President Trump in August said he wanted his Mexican border wall to be funded even if it triggered a shutdown crisis. Trump vowed that his signature issue, the wall, will be financed somewhere in the welter of legislation awaiting action this month and said he was willing to have a shutdown rather than see the wall abandoned. Since that threat was issued in late August, some reports have suggested he would not make good on it. But White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisted on Friday that Trump still meant the wall-or-shutdown ultimatum as stated.
