September 30, 2020
Congress Passes Short-Term Stopgap Bill to Fund Federal Government, SDPI through December 11, 2020
Earlier today, Wednesday, September 30, 2020, the U.S. Senate passed the short-term continuing resolution (CR) that cleared the U.S. House of Representatives last week. The final vote was 84-10.
As NIHB reported, this CR, filed under H.R. 8319, would flat fund the federal government at FY 2020 enacted levels through December 11, 2020. It would also extend the Special Diabetes Program for Indians (SDPI) through December 11 - equaling the fifth short-term extension of the program in just the past year. The President is set to sign the CR before midnight, when the next fiscal year officially begins.
It remains unclear if Congress will successfully clear a full-year appropriations bill in December, especially given the uncertainty surrounding the presidential election. While leaders from both the House and Senate appropriations committees have publicly voiced a desire to pass a final FY 2021 spending bill in the lame-duck, there remain significant hurdles towards achieving this goal. For one, the Senate has yet to even release any of its twelve appropriations bills, while the House has cleared all of them. Depending on the outcome of the election, there may be little bipartisan good will to work on a full appropriations package in December.
NIHB will provide updates as they become available. For more information about the CR, see NIHB's previous post HERE.
