Last year, it was all they would talk about.
If Congress is broken, as some critics and lawmakers believe, a major problem is that lawmakers no longer pass regular appropriations bills.
Instead, Republicans and Democrats fiddle around with a few spending bills until the process breaks down enough so that they can wash their hands of it and give up on putting controversial measures on the floor. This way, they can duck tough votes on issues like abortion and eventually negotiate a year-end deal that essentially continues current funding for everything.