House and Senate leadership over the weekend endorsed legislation that would extend Federal government funding through early March and avert a partial government shutdown that will begin on Friday night absent further action by legislators.
Under continuing resolution (CR) funding legislation approved by Congress in November 2023, some agencies – including the Departments of Transportation, Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, and Veterans Affairs – are now funded at fiscal year (FY) 2023 levels only through Jan. 19, 2024. Most others are funded through Feb. 2.
The proposed legislation released this weekend would extend funding at fiscal year 2023 levels to March 1 for agencies including the Departments of Transportation, Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, and Veterans Affairs. For remaining agencies – among them the Departments of Commerce, Justice, Defense, and Homeland Security – the legislation would extend funding to March 8.
“On Tuesday, the Senate will begin the process to pass a clean continuing resolution that 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,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Sunday.
“To avoid a shutdown, it will take bipartisan cooperation in the Senate and the House to quickly pass the CR and send it to the President’s desk before Friday’s funding deadline,” the senator said.
The Senate late Tuesday afternoon was debating a motion to proceed with the latest CR legislation.
“The focus of this week will be to pass” the funding extension bill, Sen. Schumer said today on the Senate floor.
“Time is of the essence,” he continued. “If we don’t act soon the government will run out of funding at midnight this Friday, January 19 – just a few days away.”
“Today the Senate will take the first vote to move forward on the clean CR, putting the Senate on a path to pass this CR before Friday’s deadline,” he said. “If both sides continue to work in good faith, I’m hopeful that we can wrap up work on the CR no later than Thursday.”
“The key to finishing our work this week will be bipartisan cooperation in both chambers,” Sen. Schumer said. “You can’t pass these bills without support from Republicans and Democrats in both the House and the Senate.”
“Passing the clean CR this week is important for two main reasons,” he said. “First, passing the CR of course will avoid a harmful and unnecessary government shutdown. No reasonable member on either side, Democrat or Republican, wants a government shutdown.”
“Second, passing the CR will give our appropriators time to finish drafting all 12 bills to reflect our bipartisan agreement,” he said. “I hope that both sides can continue working together this week to move forward with the CR quickly to prevent a government shutdown before the Friday deadline.”
“While we continue working to negotiate and pass bipartisan, full-year spending bills, it is critical Congress prevent a needless and costly government shutdown come Friday – and that’s exactly what this CR will do,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, on Sunday.
“Hammering out serious bipartisan funding bills is no easy task but I am going to continue working nonstop with my colleagues to pass the strongest possible bills – and soon,” she said. “No one back home wants to see a shutdown or chaos, so let’s quickly pass this CR and work to finalize serious appropriations bills, free of partisan poison pills, that protect key investments in our country’s future.”
Earlier this month, Republican and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill reached agreement on top-line Federal government funding levels for fiscal year 2024, with the White House voicing its support.
According to a Jan. 7 dear colleague letter from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., the agreement on top-line budget figures tracks the terms of the Fiscal Responsibility Act approved by Congress in June 2023.
That law increased the U.S. national debt limit through early 2025, allows for a 3.3 percent increase in defense spending for FY2024, caps Federal non-defense discretionary spending in FY2024 close to FY2023 levels, and limits non-defense spending increases to one percent in FY2025.
“The topline constitutes $1.590 trillion for FY24 – the statutory levels of the Fiscal Responsibility Act,” Speaker Johnson said in his Jan. 7 letter. “That includes $886 billion for defense and $704 billion for nondefense.”
The House Speaker said the agreement with House and Senate Democrats on top-line funding for FY2024 also includes an acceleration of the $20 billion reduction in already-approved funding for IRS modernization spending, and the elimination of $6.1 billion of unspent COVID-19 relief funding.
