The 113th Congress is wrapping up to its ignominious close. The good news is that lawmakers produced eleven spending bills to fund government in fiscal year 2015. The bad news is that fiscal year 2015 started three months ago, Congress will have little more than a few days to decide on over a trillion dollars worth of funding, and that there are actually twelve spending bills. The last one – Homeland Security – has been caught in the fight over immigration reform. The Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), gets a continuing resolution to fund the department at FY14 levels through February 27, 2015.

It’s time to close the book on the 113th Congress. The only way we survive as budget watchdogs – and we’ve been at this for twenty years – is as being optimists. This Congress has seen the highway trust fund, comprehensive tax reform, and immigration reform hit the rocks. The total spending level for fiscal year 2015 was set by the Bipartisan Budget Agreement months before it would normally be known and lawmakers still couldn’t get the work done on time.

We will analyze this bill and find various spending nuggets and legislative provisions, both good and bad, and then it’s time to turn the page. The 114th Congress has a chance to start with a relatively blank slate. We urge lawmakers to roll up their sleeves, set aside electoral pandering, and start doing the peoples’ business. There are challenges. The debt limit debate looms, transportation funding expires, setting FY16 funding levels, trade and immigration legislation. We want to work with you to achieve a government that works.

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