Alice in Wonderland was written for children but takes on new meaning when read as an adult. So many quotes illuminate the absurdities of life. And in political Washington, nothing is more absurd than the annual Congressional appropriations process that leads us to a Continuing Resolution (CR) to avert a government shutdown at the beginning of the new fiscal year.

We’re on the record lamenting the bad process that leads to so many CRs. With more than 200 years of practice, you would think the Legislative and Executives branches would have this down. The start of the fiscal year is October 1^st. Every. Dang. Year. The requirement is to have twelve separate appropriations bills through Congress and signed by the President by then. The last time all spending bills were completed on time was 1997, the last time they were done on time and passed individually – so called regular order – was 1994.

This Weekly Wastebasket brings our dear readers up to date on the current status of the federal budget process as we approach the beginning of Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23). Watch for the illuminating quotes from Lewis Carroll in bold italics as you read along.

I’m late, I’m late! For a very important date! No time to say ‘hello, goodbye,’ I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!

This describes the Senate this year. The House of Representatives is a little better – they have passed six of the twelve bills needed to fund the government and completed committee action on the rest. The Senate? Zero. To be fair, they did drop drafts of each bill during the rush to the exits for the long August break. Like a college student who hasn’t attended class all semester, they appear to be panicking as they head into the final exam.

Come, come now. Crying won’t help.

Crying won’t help, but federal agencies could be crying soon. There is no way for all twelve appropriations bills to be finalized in the next five weeks, so a CR must be passed to keep the government running after the 1^st of October. Surely each agency spent part of August thinking about a potential government shutdown – dusting off those plans that haven’t been looked at since this time last year. Congress will probably scramble to send the President a short-term bill to keep the lights on. But CRs essentially paralyze agencies, they can’t plan, hire or take on new activities during a CR. Plus, this is an election year and Members want to be on the campaign trail. It’s possible we’ll see a CR into December or, even, through January which is after the swearing in of the next Congress. Nothing’s impossible!

I have an excellent idea! Let’s change the subject.

There is a view in the Senate that any situation is an opportunity to filibuster on the topic of one’s preference. And any discussion of federal spending inevitably becomes a negotiation on how much to increase Pentagon spending. Because [y]ou can always take more than nothing. Republicans and many Democrats can be lured to vote for an overall spending package by jacking up the topline for the Pentagon. The original President’s Budget Request for FY23 asked for north of $770 billion for DoD. Watch for that to increase by tens of billions of dollars, “justified” by inflation, to secure votes.

It would be so nice if something made sense for a change.

If TCS was in charge, the Administration would release the budget request the first Monday in February every year (as required by law except years with a new President). Both the chambers would hold hearings in March and April. The agreed-upon Budget Resolution would be completed by the April 15^th deadline. House and Senate bills would be finalized before the Memorial Day break. A bunch of bills would be hammered out in July and staff would work through the August break and the last bills enacted by mid-September and sent to the President for signature or veto. What happened to that process? There are still a few Appropriations Committee members who remember when this happened.

But that’s just the trouble with me. I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it.

One saving grace this year may be that the two legislators atop the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senators Leahy (D-VT) and Shelby (R-AL) are retiring. Long-time members of the Appropriations Committee, they can still recall when passing spending bills on time was a top priority in Congress. In fact, they were both in the Senate when it last passed all the bills individually and on time. It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then. Neither of these gentlemen will want to have his final year in the Senate marred by a government shutdown. We hope they’re giving good advice behind the scenes to avoid one massive government spending bill, sacrificing oversight for haste, and potentially allowing some Members to object simply because of the size. Sorry, you’re much too big. Simply impassable.

Congress has fallen down the rabbit hole and is pulling the entire federal government along. No matter your thoughts on federal bureaucracy, the pandemic taught us there are government functions that are essential to the health and welfare of citizens: air traffic control, food inspection, law enforcement, and national security to name a few.

The Constitution assigns the job of considering the budget request and funding the government to Congress. Congress must act responsibly and thereby remind the American people of the importance of all branches of government. Yeah, we know, and maybe pigs will fly.

The time has come, to talk of other things–of shoes and ships and sealing wax, and cabbages and kings. And why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings.