Continuing Resolution Forever?

According to this Wall Street Journal story , it looks like we're going to be stuck with continuing resolutions for the federal budget for the entirety of Fiscal Year 2007. The outgoing Republican Congress failed to approve a spending plan for most federal agencies (including the Department of Energy, big spender here in New Mexico) and the incoming Dems apparently don't want to spend a bunch of their precious early-session momentum fixing the mess the R's have left them, according to the WS Journal's David Rogers:

Fearing a political trap, Democrats want to avoid becoming bogged down and sacrificing their own agenda by devoting weeks to passing an omnibus measure combining the unfinished bills. The path outlined now offers a speedier alternative, but never in modern memory has it been attempted on such a large scale. On an annual basis, the unfinished bills represent close to $463 billion discretionary spending, covering every corner of government but for Defense and Homeland Security.

Most agencies are expected to be frozen at last year's funding levels, but some adjustments will have to be made in crucial areas like veterans medical care.

The trail of blog crumbs leading here began down in Silver City .