Government shutdown what the news isn’t reporting

The Democrats links funding the government through Oct. 31 to two of the party’s other priorities: health care assistance and placing limits on President Donald Trump’s ability to unilaterally roll back funds previously approved by Congress.

Democratic Party offering health insurance coverage for immigrants without legal status.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, however, is demanding any funding bill contain an extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act premium subsidies,along with several other items, to get his party’s support.

Congress must provide funding for many federal departments and functions every fiscal year, which begins on October 1. If lawmakers fail to pass a spending package for the full year or extend funding for a shorter period, known as a continuing resolution, then many agencies and activities must shutter until Congress appropriates more money.

Since 1980, there have been 14 government shutdowns, not counting the current impasse, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.Every government shutdown differs somewhat, but typically functions that are critical to the protection of lives and property are deemed essential and remain open. Agencies file what are known as contingency plans that detail what operations will continue and how many employees will remain on the job, many of them without pay.

Congress provides budget authority (BA) that permits federal officials to obligate the federal government through hiring employees, administering grants, and signing contracts, or in other ways. BA provided by and controlled by annual appropriations laws is called discretionaryspending. BA provided by other types of laws is called mandatory, or in budget law, directspending. The 1990 Budget Enforcement Act (BEA) defined those categories.

Charts here show revenues and outlays, because those determine the budget deficit and because outlays better reflect the scale of mandatory programs.

Budget functions categorize federal funding for activities within broad policy areas (e.g., national defense, agriculture) that often cut across several federal agencies. Superfunctions group functions together and subfunctions divide funding by narrower policy areas. Congressional budget resolutions and other fiscal plans and reports use functional categories. 

Revenues are divided in source categories, namely, individual income taxes, corporate income taxes, social insurance taxes and contributions (payroll taxes), excise taxes on goods and services, estate and gift taxes, customs duties, and miscellaneous government receipts.