As Congress starts its 2022 work, it has just a few weeks until its next big deadline: The current stopgap spending bill expires Feb. 18, and Congress has not yet finalized any of the 12 annual appropriations bills for the fiscal year that started in October.

Lawmakers and defense budget observers want a deal to pass the bills instead of relying on another continuing resolution.

“These CRs are killing us,” Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, told Defense News last month. “If they do another CR in February to the end of the year, it’s going to basically cost [the Pentagon] $40 billion. It’s going to negate everything we just did in this [NDAA], plus more. And it’s just literally un-American if we aren’t doing a better job to provide for our military than that.”

AP photo by Rod Lamkey