September 27, 2022
Yes funding for the federal government is expected to run out on Friday. If there’s no funding, the government shuts down.
No Congress is not going to pass the full funding bill to keep the government open.
Instead – Congress is planning to pass what’s called a continuing resolution or CR. A CR is a bill that if passed says – yes, clearly we can’t get an agreement on a full funding plan to keep our government operating, so instead we’re going to pass a CR and that keeps spending status quo for a certain period of time. That period of time will give us more time to try and negotiate a full federal spending bill.
In this case – the current CR proposal is 237 pages and if passed it will keep the government funded through December 16th of this year.
Besides all the normal spending it also adds money for several government agencies to resettle Afghan refugees, it adds $20 million in emergency funds for water infrastructure improvements in Jackson Mississippi after residents were left without running water for weeks, it adds more than $112.5 million for security improvements at federal court houses and court facilities, $2 billion to address recovery efforts in communities dealing with major disasters from 2021 and 2022 and $1 billion will go to help support families struggling with the cost of heating their homes this year and offset the costs of extreme weather events. Plus, there’s about $12 billion of additional funding for aid to Ukraine. This CR does not add money for Covid19 or Monkeypox.
After a last-minute deal, the Senate voted *yes* to move forward in the process with this CR minus a controversial energy regulation proposal from Senator Joe Manchin. A few more votes are needed to clear this out of the Senate then the house must pass it as well and the president has to sign it before the end of the day on Friday. The House returns tomorrow. This isn’t over yet.
Tonight’s procedural vote in the Senate was 72-23.
Read the full 237 page CR here.
Read the summary here
