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Congress is in recess this week. Upon their return, Congress will face tight deadlines to complete government funding to avoid a government shutdown.
On January 19, President Biden signed into law the Further Additional Continuing Appropriations and Other Extensions Act, 2024 (P.L. No: 118-35), which extended the enacted FY23 funding levels for federal agencies in the Agriculture-FDA, Energy & Water, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, and Transportation-HUD Appropriations bills from January 19 to Friday, March 1. The remaining federal funding for the other eight appropriations bills would provide government funding from February 2 to Friday, March 8. That leaves Congress just ten days before the first federal agencies of the “laddered continuing resolution (CR)” face a government shutdown. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) faces pressure from the most conservative wing of House Republicans to shut down the government on March 1. Even with agreed upon topline numbers of $1.7 trillion, many policy provisions or “riders” will be core to negotiations as Congress hopes to resolve funding by March 1 and 8. Transportation-HUD Appropriations Chair Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) shared a positive sign on the progress of the funding bills.” We’ve reached an agreement on the numbers, the distribution inside the bill, the community funding projects and priorities,” said Rep. Cole.
Many sticking points around the rest of Congressional action between the chambers stem from international aid. The Senate passed the National Security Act, 2024 (H.R. 815) that would send $95.3 billion in foreign aid to Ukraine ($60 billion), emergency aid to Israel ($14 billion), and assistance to Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region ($4.8 billion.) The vote was 70 - 29, with 22 Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) House Speaker Johnson immediately rejected the international assistance proposal, casting doubt over whether Congress would pass funding ahead of the November elections. Speaker Johnson said, “[In] the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters,” signaling that the House will most likely not take up the Senate’s attempt at providing funding. Currently, there is a discharge petition from House Democrats (H.Res.350) that would need Republican support to force a vote on the bill. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a proponent of the bill, has spoken with House Republicans about the prospects of supporting a discharge petition.
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