While the House is now enjoying its five-week long August recess, the Senate still remains in session this week and appears to be on track to pass a four-bill spending package by Friday. The measure will include Senate versions of two House-passed bills– Interior and Financial Services– as well as the Agriculture and Transportation-Housing Urban Development bills. If the Senate approves the four-bill vehicle, it will have cleared seven of the 12 spending bills for FY2019, while the House has adopted six to date.
While each chamber continues to make progress on its own versions of bills, potential stumbling blocks to bills being signed into law remain. For example, while the two chambers are currently trying to reach an agreement on an already-adopted package of three bills– Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs– progress has been halted because the two sides cannot agree on the amount of money that is available for each bill.
In addition, President Trump earlier this week tweeted that he would advocate for a government shutdown if he does not get what he wants on “border security.” This comes after Republican Congressional leaders earlier stated that they would not support such a move. It remains unclear what the president ultimately wants.