Congress Averts a Shutdown But Now Faces a Messy 2018 Start
- Old, unresolved squabbles will rise again in the New Year
- GOP agenda takes a backseat to debt, defense and ’dreamers’
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The Republican-controlled Congress managed the bare minimum task of keeping the government open before the holiday recess, yet made little progress on a medley of divisive fiscal and social issues it will now be forced to confront in January.
Among these are resolving a long-running dispute over defense spending levels; raising the nation’s debt ceiling, which came back into force this month; and dealing with the looming deportations of undocumented immigrants, known as dreamers, who arrived in the U.S. as children.