A January 19 deadline may force Congressional leaders to avert a
government shutdown with a stop gap funding measure.
Both sides met this week for budget talks
with the White House.
Following the meeting, Republican leaders and the
president released a joint statement saying, in part,
"It is important that we achieve a two-year agreement that funds
our troops and provides for our national security and other
critical functions of the federal government.
It also remains important that members of Congress do not hold
funding for our troops hostage for immigration policy." For his
part in Madison this week, Democratic U.S.
Representative Mark Pocan expressed his dismay over the
process and its prospects.
- We've got a lot of real work to do.
Unfortunately, they've still allowed the Tea Party to have
the keys to their Shriner car they seem to be driving around.
Lately the defense hawks have been a problem because they're
trying to fully fund defense spending but not the rest of the
spending.
And of course, we're not going to go for that as Democrats
because all they're going to do is trash spending
that helps people in communities across the country.
- The U.S. House returns for its session next week.