Congress is rushing to greenlight short-term spending bills and avert a government shutdown ahead of a winter storm that will hit Washington and parts of the Northeast and Midwest.
Government funding is set to expire at midnight late Friday, but bad weather is prompting lawmakers to finish the work sooner. The Senate and House of Representatives are expected to approve another continuing resolution (CR) to continue government operations with two deadlines: March 1st and March 8th.
The Senate finalized a time agreement Wednesday night to begin a series of votes around noon Thursday. Final passage of the six-week CR is expected to take place Thursday afternoon after a series of amendment votes.
“It wasn't easy getting here,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said on the floor Thursday. “After much effort and compromise from both sides, the Senate passed the CR today, giving the House ample time to act before Friday’s deadline.”
“I urge the House to begin work on the CR as soon as possible and send it to the President's desk by today,” Schumer continued. “To give our colleagues in the House time to act, we ask senators to vote quickly when called for a vote.”
The House of Representatives is expected to consider the bill soon. House leaders called off the vote Friday, citing weather, and the bill was expected to be passed by late afternoon or evening. The bill will then be sent to the White House for President Biden's signature.
House members will vote in favor of the bill based on the suspension of the rules, meaning CR will need two-thirds support to cross the finish line.
At least an inch of snow is expected to fall in the Washington area, forecasters say. Potentially get better.part of the country Spreads from Iowa to New York City Thursday night brings wintry weather, with the cold air expected to make its way into New England on Friday.
The stopgap measure would give appropriators more time to complete work on fiscal year 2024 items ahead of the April deadline when the across-the-board 1% cut goes into effect.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) declared last year that he would not table a new continuing resolution, but he decided not to do so after it became clear that more time was needed to complete the spending work. I withdrew my stance.
The first federal funding deadlines are for military construction and funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs. transportation; housing and urban development; agriculture; and energy. March 8 is the deadline by which the rest of the government must be funded, including defense.
With the difficulty in funding the government, lawmakers are next expected to step up their consideration of a border package that Senate negotiators could unveil next week. The border deal is part of President Biden's emergency supplemental bill, which includes aid to Ukraine, Israel, the Indo-Pacific region, and humanitarian objectives.
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