Will the debate over health care reform overshadow almost everything else the federal government does? Humberto Sanchez of Congress Daily reports that now is the time of year that the House and Senate should be debating and voting on spending bills that will fund federal agencies for 2010. But Congress’s schedule is tentatively set around a lengthy debate about health care on the Senate floor at the end of this month. Bills that fund everything from defense to homeland security to the Justice Department could be tabled.

Or spending levels for all these different federal agencies could just be indefinitely prolonged in a continuing resolution. Barack Obama’s proposed fiscal-year 2010 budget changes like more money for the Education Department and Environmental Protection Agency and less money for Cold War weapons systems may be quietly killed due to Washington’s singular focus on health care.

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