Could it be? Do we really have a budget deal?

Just last week the outlook for an omnibus spending bill looked so bleak that Democrats were preparing a plan to force through a one-year stopgap bill. What a difference a week can make, however… maybe. Working late into the night, lawmakers from both parties hammered out a bipartisan agreement on a comprehensive one-year spending plan. Of course, as this report from Eric Katz at Government Executive notes, none of them have agreed on any of the specifics yet, so it could still fall apart. What they’ve actually managed to do was agree to agree on something. (If you’ve been watching the comings and goings in the swamp for a while, you already know that this isn’t all that unusual.) The leading author of this “progress” was Patrick Leahy.Read More