By MATT PIKE
A partial government shutdown that is affecting the funding to the Department of Homeland Security could finally be nearing its end after a historically long period.
United States Republican Congressman Derek Schmidt says as Congress returns to session this week, he's hopeful this is the week the stars align on getting a funding bill resolved
"It looks like the general gameplan has now been largely agreed on, there's still people that have different points of view, but generally the President signed off on it, leader (John) Thune, Speaker (Mike) Johnson signed off on it," Schmidt says on the KFEQmunnity show. "And that is to say we''ll do a two-bill strategy, we'll fund everything except the two immigration agencies that's going to have broad bipartisan support, and then a second bill that funds the immigration agencies."
"If we can't get Democrats to support it, then we'll just do it in a procedural posture that lets us do it as Republicans only, we'd rather do it all bipartisan, but if we can't get there, we have to get it done."
Schmidt says the debate right now in the House is the sequencing of the bills to ensure one does not get stranded, and both happen but is hopeful they can get things done and bring certainty to people.
The current shutdown effecting portions of DHS has caused a pause in funding, which means workers for agencies such as FEMA and the Transportation Security Administration have not been paid.
Schmidt says passing the bill in a non-bipartisan way is sure to bring more tension, but says this needs to get done, and also points out it's important to look at a bigger picture.
"What's supposed to happen every year is Congress passes 12 individual appropriation bills that together fund all of the governments operations for the coming year, but that actually hasn't been done since the mid 1990's, I think Bill Clinton was in office the last time that was done," Schmidt explains. "This year, we've done 11 out of those 12 bills, and I think all 11 had bipartisan support, so 11 out of 12 are done that is a remarkable change from the way Congress has done business the last 30 years, we're fighting still about the 12th one, and it looks like we can get bipartisan support for 90% of it."
"So, do I wish it were all done on time? Yes. Do I wish it were all done with bipartisan support? Yes. But am I pretty happy that 11 and 3/4 out of 12 look like they're on track to be done more or less the right way? Yeah, that's a big improvement for how Congress has operated over the last 30 years."
Schmidt hopes to be back in session this week to discuss the bills, and hopes that by the end of the week, or relatively soon a solution can be done to end the shutdown.
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