Photo courtesy USGS.gov.
Congress successfully avoided a government shutdown in February when members agreed to a temporary funding measure. It kept the government’s lights on for another month – that’s a good thing, right?
Keeping the government running is essential to making sure vital services, like Social Security benefits and environmental protection, continue uninterrupted, but stonewalling by Congressional Republicans is forcing some government agencies to accept a de facto budget cut. And it’s all because of one thing – a continuing resolution.
A continuing resolution (or “CR”) is a kind of budgetary time-out. When Congress can’t agree on a new budget, a CR temporarily extends funding from the most recent budget to cover the government’s expenses. Basically, a CR gives Congress a little more time to hammer out the details of a final budget. Or at least that’s how it’s supposed to work.
In recent years, it’s been harder and harder for Congress to agree on a budget, and CRs have gone from temporary stopgaps to, effectively, budgets. And that can be seriously damaging for the services we care about.
Why does this matter right now? Because the CR that Congress just approved extends the budget that was proposed and passed by Donald Trump. Over his four years in the White House, Trump regularly sought to cut federal funding for science, health, and the environment programs. And if Congress can’t agree on a budget now, it locks those Trump cuts in for another year.
In recent years, it’s been harder and harder for Congress to agree on a budget, and CRs have gone from temporary stopgaps to, effectively, budgets. And that can be seriously damaging for the services we care about.
Another year of the Trump budget would deprive crucial resources from federal agencies, which need additional funding to hire staff, fund essential programs, and implement the Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act – President Biden’s signature infrastructure law. In addition, continuing previous funding would lead to less enforcement of environmental standards, meaning it’s business as usual for Big Polluters. That means dirtier air and water for our communities, more public lands and waters transformed into oil and gas fields, and it means not implementing new programs that increase access to the outdoors and protect communities from the greatest threats of climate change.
It’s crucial that Congress act on President Biden’s budget, and the clock is ticking. This is one opportunity our climate and our communities cannot afford to miss.