Full FY18 defense budget at center of latest government shutdown threat

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2017/12/14/full-fy18-defense-budget-at-center-of-latest-government-shutdown-threat/

Full FY18 defense budget at center of latest government shutdown threat

By: Leo Shane III ?  1 day ago

WASHINGTON — House Republicans are pushing ahead with plans for a defense-heavy funding bill that Senate Democrats have vowed to oppose, again raising prospects for a government shutdown, this time over the Christmas holiday. Lawmakers have until Dec. 22 to pass a new budget deal or trigger a shutdown, which would result in shuttering of some federal offices, furloughs for some civilian employees and halted paychecks for most troops around the globe.

On Wednesday, appropriations lawmakers unveiled their latest legislation to avoid that and settle some of the unresolved budget issues for the current fiscal year, which began in October. The new measure would provide $640 billion for defense spending for fiscal 2018, another $2.1 billion to keep the Department of Veterans Affairs choice program operational through spring 2018, and money to extend the Children’s Health Insurance Program until 2019.

But it also only includes funding for federal non-defense programs for four more weeks, until Jan. 19. Lawmakers would return from their holiday recess (scheduled to start around Dec. 21) to another round of fighting over proper levels of spending for domestic programs and non-military priorities.
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said House Republicans shouldn’t bother. “Every hour the House spends on (this measure) is an hour that we waste,” he said on the Senate floor Thursday. “If Speaker Ryan forces the House to go forward with the ‘cromnibus,’ it will fail in the Senate.”
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