President Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Speaker Paul Ryan have teamed up this summer to do something that hasn’t happened in two decades — write and pass department spending bills instead of lumping everything into a massive package.
The House and Senate are moving at a brisk pace to pass the appropriations bills, with the Senate leading, approving nine of 12.
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What’s more, the Trump administration has pushed through key priorities on wall and Pentagon spending, as well as curbing wasteful programs, though still ending up with a more expensive budget than they wanted by over $50 billion.
And while Congress has taken the votes, many on Capitol Hill are giving Trump and his team the credit for breaking the 20-year log jam. They cite his refusal to sign another massive “omnibus” spending bill that ignored his priorities, even if it means shutting down the government.
“This is all driven by the president,” said a key congressional insider. “It’s a win for the president. For 20 years this system has been busted.”
Nobody is as pleased as McConnell. Last week he said that the passage of department spending packages was a huge achievement, “given how completely fouled up the government funding process has been for 20 years, 20 years.”
Smiling, he added, “This is about omnibus prevention, about actually demonstrating to the American people that we can do what we’re supposed to do.”
He also urged Americans to pay attention to the breakthrough on an issue that is critical to Washington budget geeks, but few others. “It is an important step forward and ought to reassure the American people that Congress is in good hands,” said McConnell, under pressure to keep the Senate in GOP control in the fall elections.
Some said that was a reference to the projections that voters will put Democrats in charge of the House, making Rep. Nancy Pelosi speaker. “That would mean it’s back to gridlock across the board,” warned a Republican congressional aide.
[Survey: Democrats are fed up with Nancy Pelosi]
Shifting from a huge spending bill, usually passed at the last minute, to separate department packages, is change Trump hopes to repeat. “I don’t think we can understate how big of a culture change this is,” said a senior administration official.
Trump’s former top congressional lobbyist, Marc Short, said the change was bolstered by new Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Shelby and gave the spending-writing authority to lawmakers closer to the issues than party leaders.
“It’s a big deal,” he said. “It’s the way it should be,” he added.
With a month left in the federal fiscal year, the administration and Congress plan to keep their foot on the appropriations pedal. If they come up short, administration officials expect Trump to sign a short-term “continuing resolution” if it appears final passage of the spending bills is near.
And already they are looking to begin the process next year and hope to add in more Trump priorities and budget cuts.
“We do recognize that we made progress and we’re excited about that, but there’s more work to do,” said a senior administration official. “After the election,” said the official, “we need to get our priorities. If you’re going to spend higher than our budget it needs to be things we want to spend money on, namely the wall and border security.”
