The Trump administration and Congress are continuing in their deadlock over government funding for the rest of the year — and it’s now actually lagging funding for 2020 too. Federal law requires that the White House submit their budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year by the first Monday in February — and that’s now in the past with no budget from the Trump White House.
To be sure, members of Congress often assemble their own spending proposals with little to no weight given to the administration’s requests. That’s why despite multiple rounds of dire headlines announcing Trump administration plans to drastically reduce spending at key federal agencies like the State Department and Environmental Protection Administration, those agencies are still around. The potential for roadblocks to Trump’s plans is even higher now thanks to the Democratic House majority.
Additionally, there is no actual penalty for missing the mandated date for a budget proposal for the next fiscal year, and Roll Call notes that administrations have missed the deadline before.
Still, the 2020 budget delay does not bode well for the incoming last two years of Trump’s first — and possibly only — term. The White House’s Office of Management and Budget says they’ll have a 2020 budget proposal ready more than a month in the future on March 11 — unless, that is, more sticks get thrown in the wheel first.
Trump just recently pushed the federal government into the longest shutdown in American history because Congress wouldn’t approve billions of dollars that he wanted for a border wall blocking off Mexico to protect from criminals who aren’t there and if they were there, could just go around a wall. Although after more than a month, he approved further government funding without wall money — that funding only lasts until February 15, at which time the president has made clear another shutdown could ensue if he doesn’t get what he wants.
During the most recent shutdown, the administration’s Office of Management and Budget was among affected agencies, no doubt lagging their operations. Alongside them, some 800,000 government employees were temporarily without pay thanks to the shutdown, plunging people around the country into personal financial turmoil. When pressed about the workers’ situations, President Trump just offered nonsensical suggestions like that they work with local grocery stores to arrange to pay for food at a later date — as if that’s actually how it works anywhere at any point.
That alone makes the next two years of funding negotiations seem already on thin ice outside of the administration not getting around to addressing 2020 yet. Trump will give his State of the Union address Tuesday night, which normally comes before the administration’s budget proposal — and is no doubt filled with attempts to polish that gibberish — after a one-week delay because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) refused to host him while the government was shut down.
He continues to push for his long-sought border wall that he says will protect Americans from criminals “of all dimensions” traveling over the border. To be clear, there are asylum seekers fleeing violence at the border and not rogues seeking to “invade,” as Trump asserts.
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