Jeff Bingaman: “on November 18, exactly a month from now, the current law that permits funding of the government will expire. Something…”

“on November 18, exactly a month from now, the current law that permits funding of the government will expire. Something will have to be enacted in its place since it is clear to all of us, I believe, that we will not have passed and sent to the President all of the appropriations bills by that time. The normal procedure for enacting funding bills is for them to originate in the House of Representatives and be passed there, and then they come to the Senate for consideration and get passed here. I come to the floor today to urge that before the expiration of the current continuing resolution; that is, before November 18, the House enact and send to the Senate a funding bill which extends funding to the end of the current fiscal year, which is September 30, 2012. My simple point is that, in my view, it is irresponsible for us to continue funding the government just a few weeks at a time. Already this year, we experienced a near shutdown of the Federal Government in April, a near default on the country's debt in August, a partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration in August, and another near shutdown of the Federal Government 3 weeks ago because of a dispute over disaster funding. These repeated ``Perils of Pauline'' scenarios have understandably shaken the confidence of Americans about their government and, more particularly, about this Congress. This government-generated uncertainty also has real economic consequences.…”