New Era, New Year
A transition from one presidential administration to another typically sees a mad scramble. The president announces last-minute pardons, federal agencies issue last-minute regulations, and lately, Congress has shown a tendency to pass last-minute spending bills called continuing resolutions.
Waiting until the last minute is convenient for many special interests. Provisions and special benefits for various donors can be tacked onto a spending bill, often without the fingerprints of a sponsoring member of Congress, who might otherwise be held to account by voters. The massive bill—sometimes called an “omnibus”—would be too long for members to read in a short amount of time. That too is convenient, since by the time all the provisions are parsed and made public, it’s too late to do anything—and in the past that suited beneficiaries just fine.
For a time, this year’s lame-duck continuing resolution looked to be more of the same. The first 23 pages of the 1,547-page bill would have merely continued the federal budget at the same level through March, with no add-ons. All the rest—some 1,524 pages—consisted of various add-ons, necessary for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to garner the support of House Democrats in Congress, which is necessary because the current Republican majority is too slim for them to pass it alone.
This year, however, was different. Elon Musk, whom President-elect Trump has named to head a “department of government efficiency” to advise on cutting waste in government (it’s a notional term, as there is no such actual department), used AI to analyze the bill and led a chorus of voices calling for Congress to pass a CR that actually adheres to the basic definition of “continuing resolution,” a bill that would continue the level of funding from the prior year’s appropriations.
At press time, it’s still unclear what will happen, a last-minute continuing resolution or a government shutdown. We reserve comment on specific issues that don’t concern the inland waterways, lock and dam infrastructure or the other issues we regularly cover. But we do support public debate and actually reading legislation. Needless to say, we are certainly entering a new era.
We are also on the brink of 2025. None of us can predict tomorrow, not even AI, but we do know that, regardless what tomorrow holds, rivers will still be flowing toward the sea and the men and women who work on our nation’s waterways are as important as ever.
We at The Waterways Journal wish you the best this holiday season and in the year ahead.
