South Carolina Motorcycle Rights Association

Jeff Hennie, 

Motorcycle Riders Foundation
Vice President Government Relations and Public Affairs

The Congress has been working hard this week on funding the government. Failing to pass all of the “must pass” spending bills in regular order once again has the tiger by the tail. Congress's inability to pass the bills one at a time, with lengthy and healthy debate and a robust amendment session has left congress scrambling to pass an all-in-one bill now being referred to by a new god-awful moniker: the Cromnibus. A traditional CR or “continuing resolution” simply extends the budget authority that is currently in place to keep the government from shutting down, like it did in sensational style last October. An omnibus is a package of funding legislation all wrapped up in one vote. A new set of budget allowances for the various Departments of the federal government. Those allowances can be the same as the fiscal year prior or could be completely new amounts based on the Congress’s fiscal mood. So a new piece of legislation is born, part CR, part omnibus; thus we have the Cromnibus, and it is as ugly as it sounds.

The government would shut down on December 12th, next Friday, if this bill did not pass. That's unlikely, although not entirely out of the question. So far this lame duck has lived up to its name, lame. The Congress is limping along. The Democrats seem to not realize their losses just yet, and are still governing as if they will somehow retain the majority come next year. Even with one last Senate race still to be completed, there is, obvious to most, no way they could do that. Republicans, bolstered in their authority, are beaming with pride. They seem to be equally unaware that a majority in both houses and a President who is hell-bent on silencing the newer, bigger, Republican majorities through regulation and executive orders. Mix in a dash of Ferguson protesters (yes some members are clogging House and Senate floor time with “hands up, don’t shoot” speeches), a scoop of immigration reform, and you have the half-baked lame duck congress of 2014. Lets hope it goes out with a whimper.