Lawmakers face defense funding fight in the new year

WASHINGTON – The budget instabilities that plagued a challenged military in 2017 won’t end with New Year’s celebrations.

Instead, lawmakers have delayed a defense funding fight to January, after averting a government shutdown by passing a short-term budget deal just ahead of a Friday deadline.

The new, four-week funding measure approved Thursday evening has drawn the ire of several military veterans on Capitol Hill who voiced concerns ahead of the Christmas holiday. The new stopgap funding will run out Jan. 19.

“This sort of governing-by-crisis that harms our national security and hurts veterans has to stop. I didn’t spend 23 years in the military, going through multiple deployments, just to weaken our nation so that a bunch of politicians can go home early for the holidays,” said Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., a former Black Hawk helicopter pilot who lost both legs in the war in Iraq. “Our servicemembers in danger overseas today don’t get to go home for Christmas — they have to do their jobs protecting our nation.”

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