Congress is procrastinating on the real government shutdown fight

In the near term, lawmakers’ actions bode well for ensuring that agencies and government services stay open and functional, and that government staff don’t experience disruptions to their workflow or paychecks. Much like it has done in the past, however, Congress’ decision to embrace a CR will allow it to simply procrastinate on the challenges of negotiating final spending bills — and merely postpone the possibility of a shutdown until 2024.