From Roll Call: Congress faces tough call next month on stopgap funding length

The end of the national fiscal year approaches, which means that appropriations bills must be passed. This is never politically easy.

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Partisan tensions are set to color talks on how long the stopgap funding bill for federal agencies needed next month should run, on top of already fraught coronavirus aid discussions.

It’s a typical election-year question with major implications for government operations and stakeholders who depend on them: Will Congress punt decisions into a postelection lame-duck session, or opt for a lengthier continuing resolution that runs into perhaps March?

With a divided Congress, there’s no easy answer to that question. The emerging consensus view is Republicans favor a short-term patch, while Democrats may push for the longer-term punt.

“If we have to have a continuing resolution, one to March would be best,” Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., said in an interview last week. He said he feared what an unpredictable President Donald Trump might do on government funding in a lame-duck session. “You’ve given me a nightmare question,” added Leahy.