It is 2024, and the upcoming Presidential and Congressional elections will start to cast a shadow over policy debates and timelines in Washington. For context, below is a brief recap of what’s at stake on Capitol Hill for the rest of this year – and getting past the short term hurdles.    The key short-term issues include meeting the funding deadlines to keep the government operating, which means having appropriations in place by 19 January and 2 February, depending on the agencies to be funded. At this point, if the 12 various agency appropriations bills are not finished, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has indicated he would not support another short-term stop gap spending bill and would instead support a c...