Each year, this newsletter serves as a vehicle for describing actions by Congress to appropriate funds that enable the federal government to continue its operations. A movie released in 1993 called “Groundhog Day” is about a television weather reporter who awakes each day and relives it repeatedly while he is in the town of Punxsutawney, PA to film a report about annual Groundhog Day festivities. A proposition is advanced that the appropriations cycle each fiscal year on Capitol Hill is somewhat reminiscent of that same situation.
Fiscal year 2022 began on October 1, 2021 with no permanent funding in place for the next 12 months. Short-term remedies had to be devised in the form of one or more continuing resolutions (CRs). The most recent one expired on February 18, 2022. Legislators had two choices. The most desirable option would be to pass an omnibus bill that encompass 12 different categories of spending. Otherwise, another short-term CR is needed to prevent the government from shutting down. A new CR is in effect until March 11, 2022.
A disadvantage of functioning under a CR is that departments and agencies must operate with last year’s funding levels. An inability to know how much money Congress eventually will provide for a wide assortment of programs means that long-term budget planning is upended. It also remains unclear whether new initiatives either can or should be set in motion. Another serious drawback affects government staffing levels because of the uncertainty of not knowing whether positions will continue to be funded. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) within the U.S. Public Health Services is an example of an agency influenced negatively by the prevailing uncertainty. Important programs involving community health centers for the delivery of needed services and health workforce training are two of many entities to benefit immensely by having clearer funding signposts in efforts to go forward effectively.
Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) was the author of La Scienza Nuova, a book that he wrote to decipher the history, mythology, and laws of the ancient world. His conception of history is that it unfolds in four stages: theocratic, aristocratic, democratic, and chaotic. In the last phase, everything falls apart, producing a ricorso that results in a return to the theocratic phase where the cycle begins all over again.
Perhaps a way of viewing the annual funding cycle on Capitol Hill might be to consider it as occurring in the following stages:
Dread—Funding finally was approved for this year. Is it really time to begin once again?
Conflict—Why cannot colleagues on the other side of the aisle simply agree with us this time?
Anxiety—Will an omnibus bill ever be passed before the current fiscal year ends?
Satiety—We did it.
Lastly, related to determining if passage of omnibus legislation is achievable, the issue of parity tends to arise every year. If money for social programs is going to be increased, shouldn’t funding for military purposes be increased equally? The same quagmire holds true vice versa.