Senate appropriations leaders are already expressing concern over the ability of Congress to pass FY’24 spending bills by the new early March deadline. “I’m very concerned that we don’t have the allocations for the subcommittees so that we can begin work on the conference,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) when speaking to reporters early this week.  One issue is that there is yet no agreement on spending caps for each of the 12 separate bills. The current approach used by appropriators to agree to top-line caps and then back everything into each separate measure.    Another issue is the debate over security at the southern border.  It is tied to foreign aid appropriations and is therefore linked to the overall process of reaching an agreement on final appropriations for all agencies.  House Republicans have made clear that they expect their language to be adopted, something with which the Senate is not likely to agree.  Also, while March may seem like it’s a long way off, the House is out of session this week and both chambers will take an extended 10-day break for the President’s Day holiday in February.    That doesn’t leave very many days to work together to iron out differences and separately vote on each measure.  Although few are saying it, the situation could lead to a year-long CR for most civilian operations, with potential carve-outs for programs deemed to be of particular importance.  Not passing a DOD appropriations bill would simply be a total failure of duty given today’s geopolitical reality.  As such, DOD would likely finally get an appropriations bill at some point this year.  Contractors and their customers must continue to wait and see how these events unfold.  Congress will again go right down to the wire.  Stay tuned.