The Senate on Wednesday passed a stopgap bill to keep the government open, averting a shutdown for now while setting up a contentious fight over funding in the new year.
The bill was approved by the House on Tuesday and will now be sent to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. Government funding is currently set to expire at the end of the week on Friday, November 17. The Senate passed the bill by a vote of 87 to 11.
Lawmakers are still under pressure to try to negotiate and pass full-year spending bills in just over two months as the stopgap bill creates two new shutdown deadlines in January and February, an unusual two-step approach to funding the government.
The House will be in the same position come January. Just in time for primary season.
It'll be weird though, unlike past resolutions the Republicans wanted part of the government funding continued until January and part continued until February. I worry this means Republicans are planning on letting it lapse in some kind of partial shutdown.
Hopefully Congress can at least get funding dealt with properly before the election so there's no opening for sore losers to cause a shutdown.
How much would a shut down mess up inauguration day?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The Senate on Wednesday passed a stopgap bill to keep the government open, averting a shutdown for now while setting up a contentious fight over funding in the new year.
Major partisan divisions, including demands from House conservatives for deep spending cuts that Democrats reject as a non-starter, will make that effort fraught and complicated.
The bill would extend funding until January 19 for priorities including military construction, veterans’ affairs, transportation, housing and the Energy Department.
Johnson has argued that his plan would prevent Congress from passing a massive spending bill in December – a scenario that has played out many times before when lawmakers have faced a deadline right before the winter holidays.
Many House Republicans have signaled that Johnson will be spared the same fate as McCarthy, arguing that he has not been on the job long and inherited problems that were not of his own making.
But it remains to be seen how long the honeymoon period will last for the new speaker as conservative hardliners continue to press for their demands ahead of the broader funding fight.
The original article contains 413 words, the summary contains 176 words. Saved 57%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
