The 114^th Congress is staggering to the finish line.

While not a lot has been done, one thing that is likely to be accomplished in the last week of the Congress is the passage of a Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the entire federal government through April 28, 2017. Of course, it’s hard to call that much of an accomplishment because it represents a failure to not only get the dozen spending bills done on time (back in September) but also that the 114^th Congress is kicking the can to the next Congress. It will be more than halfway into the fiscal year before most agencies know what their funding level will be for 2017. And for a bill with such an important role to play in keeping the lights on and the wheels of government turning, it is a relatively slim 70 pages long. This is because, for the most part, all government programs are being funded at roughly last year’s level, minus a 0.1901% “haircut” across all accounts. (At press time, the CR still hadn’t passed due to some opposition in the Senate that may delay passage until Sunday causing a weekend government shutdown).

Of course, if the CR really funded all programs at last year’s level, or 99.8099% to be exact, they could accomplish that with two pages of text. But as all of Washington knows, there are always “anomalies” that are identified. Anomalies are programs that cannot, according to their advocates, exist on just last year’s funding. They are “special” cases.

First, and definitely the most expensive “anomaly” is the “Security Assistance Appropriations Act, 2017.” This is a staggering $10 billion supplemental for the Departments of Defense and State to fund programs under the Overseas Contingency Operations account. The most cynical aspect of this new plug of money is that it is “off budget” and therefore doesn’t violate the caps of Budget Control Act of 2011. This supposedly makes it “free money” although at TCS we’ve been arguing against this budget dodge for years.

Next is one to allow the Secretary of the Navy to spend as much as $773 million on the ramp-up to build a new ballistic missile submarine. The Navy seeks a new advanced procurement line, not included in previous budgets, to buy certain parts and materials in advance of the actual need for those items in the construction of the submarines. And while this may seem to make sense, advance procurement actually serves to lock in future legislators to the actions of this Congress, which will only be in existence for a few more weeks.

The bill doles out “free” money to more than just defense. There’s a billion dollars for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works program, another billion for the Department of Transportation, and nearly $2 billion for Housing and Urban Development. All of this funding is supposed to be directed at repairing damages from natural disasters. Throw in $200 million for “emergency” conservation work at the Department of Agriculture and $75 million for repairs to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and the bill’s total tab for off-budget spending tops $14 billion.

Also a seemingly bad fit for a bill that is only supposed to fund current programs is a provision that transfers control of the O’Neill House Office Building from the General Services Administration to the Architect of the Capitol (the entity that runs the physical plant of the Capitol complex.) While we aren’t opposed to the transfer, we fail to believe this transfer rises to the level of something required to keep the federal government running for the next four and a half months.

Another provision that has nothing to do with funding the federal government is one to require “Expedited Consideration of Certain Legislation.” This “certain legislation” would severely curtail Senate Floor procedures to smooth the way for confirmation of the President-elect’s nominee for Secretary of Defense. And while this may be important, it doesn’t belong in a Continuing Resolution.

The CR will close the door on the 114^th Congress. Republicans will have control of all levers of government next year. That means there are no excuses, the 115^th must function better than what we’ve seen the last several years.