NORFOLK, Va. — The clock is ticking once again towards yet another possible government shutdown. The new deadline is Friday, Nov. 17.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is proposing a "laddered" approach to avoid a government shutdown. Under his plan, one bill would extend funding until January 19, with a second bill extending funding until Feb. 2.
But neither bill includes additional aid for Israel or Ukraine.
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Plus, there's no guarantee that the hard right Freedom Caucus or Democratic minority in the House would go along with it, let alone the Democratic majority in the Senate.
Still, an imperfect continuing resolution would be better than a shutdown, says Old Dominion University economics professor Bob McNab.
"And maybe the best solution at the end of the day is to kick the proverbial can into 2024 and hope for something better," he said in an interview Monday with 13 News Now.
If a shutdown did happen, McNab said Hampton Roads would be especially hard hit given the area's heavy reliance on federal spending.
"We typically focus on the 80,000 active duty and 50,000-plus federal civilians. But let's not forget about those who are contractors who won't get paid in arears if there's a government shutdown," he said.
McNab continued: "And then of course there are all of the businesses that support the active-duty service members and civilian federal employees--the restaurants, the dry cleaners, the auto repair shops. All of a sudden, if active-duty service members and federal civilian employees don't have a paycheck coming in, they're not going to go out and spend money."
