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Congress is supposed to pass laws to fund the government every year. And that's supposed to happen by the end of September.
美国国会应该每年通过法律为政府提供资金。这应该发生在九月底。
The end of September. Well, it's now February, late February, and still nothing.
九月底。嗯，现在已经二月了，二月下旬了，还是什么也没发生。
They keep pushing back the deadline to avoid calamity.
他们不断推迟最后期限以避免灾难发生。
Lawmakers have another self-imposed shutdown deadline on Friday, which is likely to result in one of two things, a shutdown or another continuation of the spending plans authorized a very long time ago back in 2022.
国会议员在周五还有一个自行设定的停摆最后期限，这可能会导致两种情况中的一种，要么是政府停摆，要么是再次延续很久以前在2022年批准的支出计划。
NPR congressional reporter Eric McDaniel is here in the studio with us again to tell us more about this again. Good morning.
NPR国会记者埃里克·麦克丹尼尔再次来到演播室，为我们带来更多相关信息。早上好。
Good morning again.
早上好。
So, you know, you've been covering Congress since October, and I already feel like we've talked about this three or four times, but it keeps happening. Why is that?
你从10月份就开始报道国会事件，我觉得我们已经讨论过三到四次了，但这件事一直发生着。为什么呢?
This is actually so important for people to understand.
这对人们理解这个事件是非常重要的。
And the answer is kind of simple but kind of sad.
答案很简单，但也很悲哀。
Congress is broken, right?
国会出了问题，对吧?
Passing funding legislation is the core responsibility of the legislative branch.
通过拨款立法是立法部门的核心职责。
We're sitting here in the richest country in the world.
我们正身处世界上最富有的国家。
You've probably heard this, called the power of the purse.
你可能听说过叫做“财政大权”的说法。
And instead of coming together to figure out how the United States should best use the money it collects from citizens and taxpayers, it's relied on decisions made back in 2022 just to keep the lights on.
不是聚在一起弄清楚美国应该如何最好地利用从公民和纳税人那里收集的资金，而是依赖于2022年做出的决定，只是为了保持政府运转下去。
But the world is different now, right? Inflation has limited how far dollars go.
但现在世界不同了，对吧? 通货膨胀限制了美元的升值幅度。
It prevents every single part of the government, from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to the Department of Education, from doing long-term planning with the key context of, you know, knowing how much money they'll have to devote to their programs.
这阻止了政府从住房与城市发展部到教育部的每一个部门，带着知道他们需要为自己的项目投入多少资金的关键背景信息进行长期规划。
OK, so for people who may not remember their kind of high school civics class, this is the most essential part of Congress' job.
好，对于那些可能不记得高中公民课的人来说，这是国会工作中最重要的部分。
So why haven't lawmakers done it?
为什么国会议员还没有这样做呢?
I've said it before. I'll say it again, it's true that House Republicans have a very narrow majority.
我以前说过。我再讲一遍，众议院共和党人确实拥有微弱多数席位。
That means in order to pass anything with just Republican votes, which is typical when you've got the gavel, when you've got the power, they have to keep everyone in a very divided party on the same page.
这意味着为了通过共和党的投票(当拿到了小木槌，拥有了权力，这很典型)，他们必须让这个分歧很大的政党中的每个人都站在同一立场上。
But I actually think that's just sort of half the story. The fuller answer here is about systems.
但我认为这只是一半原因。更完整的答案是关于系统的。
House Republicans changed the rules at the beginning of this Congress last January.
众议院共和党人在去年1月本届国会开始时改变了规则。
So in practice, it only takes three or four people out of more than 200 to fire their boss, speaker Mike Johnson.
实际上，200多人中只要有三四个人反对就可以让领导者议长迈克·约翰逊下台。
But working with Democrats to keep the government open will upset more than just those three or four people because there's a faction of the Republican Party that sees anything less than sort of passing their ultimate conservative priorities as a failure, who see bipartisan legislating as a failure.
但是，与民主党人合作以保持政府的正常运转会让这三四个人感到不安，因为共和党中有一个派系认为，任何不能通过最终保守派优先事项的事情都是失败的，这个派系认为他们认为两党立法是失败的。
But Congress right now is under bipartisan control, the Democrats have power in the Senate, and those two stances are sort of irreconcilable.
但国会目前由两党控制，民主党在参议院拥有权力，这两种立场是不可调和的。
