WASHINGTON — Impeachment hearings for President Donald Trump come at the very time that Capitol Hill usually tends to its mound of unfinished business.
The hearings and the possibility of impeachment and a trial create yet another layer of complications for senior lawmakers pressing for an agreement on $1.4 trillion worth of federal agency budgets or finalizing a rewrite of the North American trade rules.
Yet the new few weeks could still be the last, best opportunity for lawmakers to wrap up their work.
In the near term, the sole piece of must-do business is to pass a stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown. Avoiding a shutdown shouldn’t be a problem, at least for now, with passage of a temporary, governmentwide spending bill to perhaps Dec. 20 virtually assured.
Andrew Taylor, The Associated Press
