Congress dawdles on federal spending bills | Food and Environment Reporting Network

With the August recess on the horizon, lawmakers seem certain to defer action on the annual spending bills for federal departments until this fall, says Roll Call. It sees “a dim prospect for any substantive appropriations work – aside from the child migrant supplemental – until after the November elections, or perhaps later. Many senior appropriators say they now see a 12-bill continuing resolution as a near inevitability.”

Politico begins a story headlined “And Congress punts,” with this sentence, “Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill are united on one thing: The best strategy this election year is to punt on any big decisions.”

The funding bill for USDA was shelved weeks ago in the House and Senate due to rancor over a House Republican proposal for a one-year waiver for some schools from complying with school lunch reforms. A House committee approved an Interior and Environment funding bill last week that would bar EPA from implementing its “waters of the United States” regulation.