The United States is in yet another countdown for yet another potential government shutdown. And, like in years past, Congress is likely to put forth a continuing resolution, or CR — a stopgap measure to keep the government open until a real deal can be made.

But Republicans in the House of Representatives don’t seem to have a plan for what that CR would look like. At least, not one that has a real chance in the Senate, much less in the White House. So they’re floating lots of unique ideas on how to move forward, including coming up with some new terminology.

Rather than extending funding for the whole government, the House GOP is considering different funding expiration dates for different parts of government — like a deadline for military, transportation and agriculture in a month or so, and other parts of government later. 

They are calling this a “laddered” continuing resolution. And to be honest, before this week, I’d never heard of it.

“You’re not the only one,” said Sharon Parrott, who runs the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

“I had not heard the term either,” said Mark Schmitt, who directs the political reform program at New America.

The phrasing was even new for Tom Kahn at American University, who spent 20 years working for the House Budget Committee.

“And I think the reason I’ve never heard of it before is that it’s just headed to failure. It’s an attempt to work around the fact that House Republicans are having trouble governing,” Kahn said.

According to Roll Call, the technique was used once back in the early ’90s — even if it wasn’t called a laddered CR then.

But the reason Kahn and others say this workaround is unworkable now is because it doesn’t address the impasse for overall spending levels. 

“Because if you start to go forward with some bills, and you haven’t made those top-line decisions, you run the risk of doing some bills, and then not having enough resources left at the end,” said Parrott at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

If the House GOP does figure out a way to make this work, which New America’s Schmitt thinks is unlikely, “one difference it might make is that … you might not have the big shutdown. And the big shutdown forces Congress to say, ‘OK, we’ve got to get this stuff done because you’re shutting down everything,'” Schmitt said.

A laddered CR would allow Congress to create a series of partial shutdowns, which could mean less pressure from the public to get a comprehensive deal across the finish line.

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