Frederica Freyberg:

A January 19 deadline may force Congressional leaders to avert a government shutdown with a stop gap funding measure. Both sides met this week for budget talks with the White House. Following the meeting, Republican leaders and the president released a joint statement saying, in part, “It is important that we achieve a two-year agreement that funds our troops and provides for our national security and other critical functions of the federal government. It also remains important that members of Congress do not hold funding for our troops hostage for immigration policy.” For his part in Madison this week, Democratic U.S. Representative Mark Pocan expressed his dismay over the process and its prospects.

Mark Pocan:

We've got a lot of real work to do. Unfortunately, they’ve still allowed the Tea Party to have the keys to their Shriner car they seem to be driving around. Lately the defense hawks have been a problem because they’re trying to fully fund defense spending but not the rest of the spending. And of course, we’re not going to go for that as Democrats because all they’re going to do is trash spending that helps people in communities across the country.

Frederica Freyberg:

The U.S. House returns for its session next week.