Continuing Resolution to Fund the Government Until March 2024 Passes
Over a 100 House and Senate Republicans voted against the measure that would prevent a partial government shutdown tomorrow.
For the third time during the 118th Congress, the government will be funded through a continuing resolution. Earlier today, the U.S. House of Representatives followed the U.S. Senate in extending current government funding levels in two batches - through March 1 and March 8. The measure now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.
Once again, House and Senate Democrats were responsible in keeping the government open. Over 100 Republicans in both legislative chambers refused to extend the deadline which would have required the government to partially shutdown on Friday. The Senate approved the continuing resolution by a 77-18 vote. Every vote in opposition came from Republicans. The House then passed the legislation by a 314-108 vote. 106 of the ballots in opposition came from Republicans - which is nearly half of the House Republican Conference.
Members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus wanted to move the continuing resolution through regular order in the House Rules Committee to attach H.R.2 as an amendment. That bill includes all of the extremist immigration policies House Republicans have been trying to pass for the last year. Instead, the continuing resolution was passed through a suspension of the rules - which required two-thirds of the chamber to vote in favor. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson of Louisiana supported that maneuver. However, he too is refusing to accept anything less than H.R.2 in the ongoing discussions with the White House and Senate Democrats to add immigration reform to the foreign assistance package for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.
Government spending for Fiscal Year 2023 ended in September 2023. Instead of passing any yearlong appropriations bills, then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California negotiated a 45-day extension. After that, he was removed from the office. After weeks of turmoil, new House Speaker Mike Johnson got a laddered approach through the legislative chambers. Earlier this month, Johnson agreed to a topline spending number of $1.66 trillion for Fiscal Year 2024 with President Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
None of the dozen appropriations bills have passed either the House or Senate. Four of them - the Agriculture, Energy-Water, Military Construction-VA, and Transportation-HUD - faced a January 19 deadline. The remaining eight bills were set to expire on February 2.
The appropriations committees in the House and Senate have not yet made any agreements on how to divide the agreement made with the White House amongst the various agencies. Moreover, policy disputes continue to plague the final product - with Republican hardliners insisting on additional poison bill amendments that prevent final passage. Anything that passed the House on a partisan basis would likely be dead-on-arrival in the Senate.
All of this means Congress has not yet begun any work on the appropriations process for Fiscal Year 2025. The current funding rate continues the levels established for 2023 - with increases in today’s extension only coming for the National Nuclear Security Administration to avoid layoffs and the Federal Aviation Administration to meet mandated pay raises.