When members of Congress return to Washington next week, they’ll again be facing a budget deadline to fund key areas of the government and avert a partial government shutdown after March 1.
Lawmakers have previously approved three temporary spending plans for the current fiscal year, but U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Southeast Tennessee, doesn’t expect another one next week.
Fleischmann, the lone Tennessee member on the House Appropriations panel and one of a dozen key subcommittee chairs who help shape the federal budget, said he remains optimistic a new spending plan will be adopted next week.
“We are still working through some of the major issues on both the energy and the water side, but I am very pleased and optimistic about where we are right now,” Fleischmann said in a telephone interview. “I do not want to see another extension; I want to see a budget deal.”
Fleischmann, who chairs the subcommittee on energy and water appropriations in the U.S. House, said a final spending measure will probably have to be filed by Tuesday, if not sooner, to meet the March 1 deadline and get it approved in the House and Senate.