WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders announced a long-term stopgap measure Tuesday to keep the government funded through this spring, days away from preventing a government shutdown.
Congress has until Friday night to stem the funding shortfall. approved a continuing resolution The new stopgap measure, approved by the House, Senate and President Biden, will keep the government funded through March 14, with lawmakers planning to issue new funding once a budget is finalized. It would give them more time to reach an agreement on a spending bill. Republicans control both the House and Senate.
The 1,500-page emergency package also includes a one-year extension of the Farm Bill, about $100 billion in disaster relief, and $10 billion in economic aid for farmers.
House leaders are under pressure to abide by the 72-hour rule for lawmakers to consider bills before they are voted on, putting the continuing resolution in jeopardy. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday morning that he believed the rules would be adhered to, but with a weekend deadline looming, he may not have a choice.
He also noted that House Republican leadership is committed to passing a continuing resolution through the normal processes, including through the House Rules Committee, where it could face opposition from Republican hardliners. He said this is almost certain and could further delay the path to passage.
Even before the announcement, members of the party’s right wing had begun to voice opposition to the stopgap measures. “This is not the process we signed up for,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who sits on the Rules Committee, told reporters after the House Republican meeting on Tuesday morning, adding that lawmakers should be able to modify and discuss it. He said that. Important bills on the House floor.
“We get shit in the bargain and we’re forced to eat this shit sandwich,” Roy said. “Why? Because Christmas is just around the corner. It’s the same thing every year: legislate according to the crisis, legislate according to the calendar. Don’t legislate because it’s the right thing to do. ”
Instead, leaders are relying on Democrats to reach the two-thirds majority needed for passage, moving the bill through a procedure known as a suspension of rules, in order to get the bill to the Senate more quickly before the deadline. may choose to vote. – Weekly deadlines.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar acknowledged Tuesday morning that Republicans need Democrats to approve government funding, saying the momentum “has been true this Congress” and “will continue to be true in the next Congress.” ” he said.
“This is a lesson for Chairman Johnson,” Aguilar said. “Let’s find a solution, remove the most extreme voices from the conference, and find the agreement we need to fund the government.”
Mr Johnson has previously expressed an aversion to big year-end fundraising schemes known as omnibuses and vowed to avoid the practice of forcing spending before the holidays. He defended Tuesday’s continuing resolution, saying “this is not an omnibus” and insisting the party will be in a position to “clarify what the final spending bill is” in the new year. He also noted that House Republicans aimed to resolve the government funding dispute early this year by a March 14 deadline.
Despite this week’s tight schedule, there is little appetite in Washington for the funding shortfall, with lawmakers expected to thwart the threat of a government shutdown.
Sen. Patty Murray, the Senate’s top Democratic appropriator, said ahead of the bill’s release Tuesday afternoon that negotiators were supposed to have finished their work, but were delayed by “an 11th-hour request from the speaker.”
“As we enter the holiday season, the public is in desperate need of extra help to prevent unnecessary closures, keep government operations open, and get much-needed aid to communities across the country recovering from disaster,” Murray said. “We really need a partisan policy.”
He said MPs were “working around the clock to make the CR a reality” and intended it to be a “very simple, very clean” stopgap funding measure for the party to get into the new year. He pointed out that he was doing so. But the Louisiana Republican said “some intervention” has occurred, citing the damage caused by Hurricanes Helen and Milton earlier this year. Mr Johnson said the emergency measures would include “very important” disaster relief and help would also be provided to farmers.
“It would have been a very thin, very simple, clean CR, but then they added these other elements to it,” Johnson said.
