The Senate passed the third continuing resolution for fiscal year 2024 on Thursday to avert a partial government shutdown scheduled to occur on Saturday at midnight.
Both houses of Congress have been unable to completely pass any of the twelve appropriations bills necessary to fund the government, which has necessitated a series of continuing resolutions to maintain funding at levels enacted for fiscal year 2023. The Senate passed the third such resolution for the year by a vote of 77 yeas to 18 nays, sending it to the House of Representatives for final passage. (RELATED: Democratic Leaders Praise Latest Continuing Resolution)
The resolution authorizes government funding until March 1 for the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Veterans Affairs, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, with the remainder of government departments being funded until March 8. It also authorizes funding until March 1 for the Food and Drug Administration, water developments and military construction projects by the Department of Defense.
Today we’ll be voting on a continuing resolution in an effort to stave off a government shutdown. The threat of which is detrimental & disheartening to our country & constituents.
Leaders on both sides must do everything to avoid these continual threats to hardworking Americans. pic.twitter.com/rorkc47m27— Sen. Cory Booker (@SenBooker) January 18, 2024
Apart from authorizing government funding, the resolution addresses miscellaneous matters such as reauthorizing public health programs, child and family programs and efforts to counter drone-based national security threats, as well as delaying statutory cuts to Medicaid payments.
The continuing resolution was not presented as an individual bill but was instead offered as a substitute amendment to the Permanent Electronic Duck Stamp Modernization Act, which was passed by the House on Sept. 20 to modify the way waterfowl are hunted. Those provisions were not included in the new version of the bill.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on Tuesday that the CR “will avert a shutdown and give Congress the time it needs to finish our work to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has likewise indicated that he strongly supports the measure.
Among the Republicans, the proposal has been reluctantly supported by House Speaker Mike Johnson, a reversal of his position in December to not present the House with another continuing resolution for the remainder of the fiscal year.
“Because the completion deadlines are upon us, a short continuing resolution is required to complete what House Republicans are working hard to achieve: an end to governance by omnibus, meaningful policy wins, and better stewardship of American tax dollars,” he said in a press release on Sunday.
“The Law Firm of Schumer, McConnell, Johnson & Jeffries has not served Republicans (or Americans) well,” Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“DO NOT vote for any spending bill without tough border-security provisions. The continuing resolution (CR) contains no such language. Demand an amendment adding it to the CR. If that’s denied, vote it down!” he wrote in an additional tweet.
“Today we are gathered, once again, to kick the can down the road … to continue spending money not individually in appropriations bills, not with any accountability for the money that’s being spent, but just to keep spending,” Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said on the Senate floor before the bill passed. “At the rate, we are spending the money, we will have accumulated a $34 trillion debt. We’re accumulating debt at a rate of about $1 trillion every three months … $5 billion every day, over $220 million an hour, nearly $4 million every minute and over $62,000 a second.”
Later, by a vote of 13 yeas to 82 nays, the Senate defeated an attempt by Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas to send the resolution back to the appropriations committee and replace it with a bill to fund the government for the full fiscal year.
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