As Congress debates a funding bill and time runs short to avert a government shutdown, Rice University faculty are available to discuss the rapidly changing situation.
Mark Jones, a professor of political science at Rice and fellow at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, said while Speaker Mike Johnson and the GOP-run House still may be able to pass a continuing resolution to prevent a government shutdown, the friction within the GOP caucus and Johnson’s difficulties in leading it foreshadow the difficulties facing President-elect Donald Trump when he takes office in a month and the Republican House majority will be even more razor thin.
“While political observers during Trump’s first term in office knew it was critical to follow Trump’s Twitter feed religiously, it would appear that they also need to be following Elon Musk in order to be well-positioned to interpret and forecast political events during Trump’s second term,” Jones said.
John Diamond, the Edward A. and Hermena Hancock Kelly Senior Fellow in Public Finance and director of the Baker Institute’s Center for Public Finance, said the ongoing back and forth presents an opportunity to discuss getting rid of the debt ceiling once and for all.
“It has done nothing to restrain the government from piling up a mountain of debt in the past, and it’s unlikely to be successful in the future,” Diamond said.
Even when the debt ceiling has led to legislation promising to reign in the level of debt levels, like the Budget Control Act of 2011, such legislation is then whittled away until it is ineffective — Diamond wrote about this in a Baker Institute brief, “Reflecting on the Budget Control Act of 2011 and Its Relevance Now.”
“Meanwhile, the current bill is filled with items that should be considered in the normal budget process, not at the last minute,” Diamond said. “The not-so-good news is that this is yet another episode that shows how broken our budget system is. We need to reform the budget process.”
To schedule an interview with Jones or Diamond, contact Amy McCaig, senior media relations specialist, at amym@rice.edu.
Rice experts available to discuss threats of government shutdown
