It's only February and more than seven months away from the start of fiscal 2019 on October 1. Congress and the White House should, therefore, have all the time they need to enact the 12 appropriations for the coming year and avoid a lame duck session after the election, right?
Wrong: A continuing resolution that funds the federal government from October 1 until around mid-December is already easy to predict and that alone makes a lame duck session this year all but inevitable.
The current continuing resolution for this year -- fiscal 2018 -- expires on March 23 and Congress and the White House are very likely to take at least until
then -- yet another CR is very possible --to enact the remaining (that is, all of them) appropriations.
