Following a short-term spending bill to avoid a partial federal government shutdown at the end of September, lawmakers are getting closer to the next deadline.

The legislation that was passed by the US House and Senate only funds the federal government until November 17th. Iowa’s Third Congressional District Representative Zach Nunn says since October when they selected a new House Speaker, the House has passed almost all of their appropriation bills to the Senate. However, he believes the Senate wants to push through an omnibus bill instead.

Nunn thinks that there will be another short-term spending bill by the November 17th deadline, which he is okay with.

“Because what I won’t do is shut down the federal government and put military members on carrier strike groups that are currently in the Mediterranean out of pay, put families out of benefits, or seniors out of Medicare or Social Security. Those are promising we made and those are promising we’re going to commit to.”   

Nunn talks about what the House did to incentivize the Senate to consider the budget through the individual appropriation bills.

“And so we included an amendment that said, ‘If we can’t pass a budget, and we go back to a continuing resolution, it’s an automatic one-percent cut.’ And I think that’s enough to sober up the Senate to come to the table and have a real conversation about passing a meaningful budget.” 

Nunn adds he also introduced legislation to require the federal government to have a balanced budget because he believes there is too much spending that is happening and contributing more to the country’s debt.