With no appropriations bill in sight, House GOP keeps kicking the can (otherwise government shutdown Oct 1st...Nov 17th...JanFeb...March...)

[essentialsaltes]

Government shutdown threat returns as Congress wraps up recess​

When lawmakers return to Washington next week, they'll have less than a week to pass a bill to fund the government and avert a partial government shutdown after March 1. And a slew of setbacks in recent weeks suggests the odds of a shutdown are at least even.

The deadlines come months into the fiscal year, after lawmakers have already had to rely on three funding patches to keep the government operating.

Tensions remain high in Congress after the Senate passed a foreign aid bill that Speaker Mike Johnson has so far refused to bring up for a vote in the House. Lawmakers in both chambers have clamored for a path forward on aid to Ukraine as conditions become more dire, while some are eager to address border security, too. But a solution has remained out of reach as Republicans in both chambers struggle to find a version of the legislation they can back.

In a letter to Johnson on Wednesday seeking an update on funding negotiations, conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus suggested that if they don't get the policy riders they're seeking, they would opt to pass a year-long continuing resolution that would result in the across-the-board [1%] cuts that others in Congress dread. [While a blunt tool, this may be the most constructive thing the House Freedom Caucus has ever suggested.]

 

[Brihaha]

Funding our government is a relatively fundamental aspect of being members of congress. These people struggle even to pass continuing resolutions nowadays. I have trouble processing why our electorate keeps electing successively worse congresses in America. We insist on electing people who muck up the mundane, how can we trust them to tackle major issues affecting all of us constituents? Sooner or later won't the can disintegrate, along with our quality of life?

As much as I feel like looking the other way in regard to politics I think it's important to keep abreast of the actions of leaders, and even their inaction. We are doing something wrong when the fundamental obligations of government are too difficult for leadership to accomplish in a timely fashion. They are on vacation from the toil of doing less than any congress since the great depression.

This is a horrible time to switch to an autocratic or authoritarian system though. A quality dictator eludes my eyesight in America. I wouldn't want that anyhow. I think we need to shake things up at the ballot box to see any worthwhile progress in America again. Shake it up and Shake it off!

 

[essentialsaltes]

Johnson gets real about funding leverage as shutdown looms​

Speaker Mike Johnson told House Republicans on a private conference call Friday night that their disunity has ceded leverage to Democrats ahead of the government shutdown deadline next week, according to two people on the call.

As the speaker works to defeat policy demands from Democrats and secure GOP priorities in those measures, he acknowledged that his deal-making power is undermined by the fact that a contingent of House Republicans now routinely blocks GOP measures from being debated with a simple-majority bar for passage.

House Republican leaders are expected to need overwhelming support from Democrats to pass the spending measures at a threshold of nearly 290 votes, the two-thirds bar required if the majority skips the typical rules for floor debate.

 

[essentialsaltes]

The tiniest can kick.

Congressional leaders strike a deal on appropriations bills and a stopgap funding measure​

In a joint statement on Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other top lawmakers announced that negotiators have come to an agreement on six bills and that the package will be voted on and passed before March 8.

“To give the House and Senate Appropriations Committees adequate time to execute on this deal in principle, including drafting, preparing report language, scoring and other technical matters, and to allow members 72 hours to review, a short-term continuing resolution to fund agencies through March 8 and the 22 will be necessary, and voted on by the House and Senate this week,” the congressional leaders said in their statement.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Congress unveils first six budget bills as government shutdown clock ticks​

Congressional lawmakers on Sunday released the details of the first six budget bills needed to keep government agencies funded before they run out of money and a partial government shutdown takes effect this coming weekend.

Funding for those departments was due to expire last Friday, March 1, but congressional leaders struck a deal on Wednesday to extend those deadlines by a week and avert a partial government shutdown. It was the fourth such funding extension this fiscal year, as Congress has struggled to settle on a long-term budget plan.

Democrats are trumpeting the continued full funding of a special food assistance program for women, infants and children. They also secured wins on rent assistance and pay for infrastructure employees like air traffic controllers and railway inspectors.

Meanwhile, Republicans are trumpeting victories on veterans’ gun ownership and funding cuts to government agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

 

[Arcangl86]

Congress unveils first six budget bills as government shutdown clock ticks​

Congressional lawmakers on Sunday released the details of the first six budget bills needed to keep government agencies funded before they run out of money and a partial government shutdown takes effect this coming weekend.

Funding for those departments was due to expire last Friday, March 1, but congressional leaders struck a deal on Wednesday to extend those deadlines by a week and avert a partial government shutdown. It was the fourth such funding extension this fiscal year, as Congress has struggled to settle on a long-term budget plan.

Democrats are trumpeting the continued full funding of a special food assistance program for women, infants and children. They also secured wins on rent assistance and pay for infrastructure employees like air traffic controllers and railway inspectors.

Meanwhile, Republicans are trumpeting victories on veterans’ gun ownership and funding cuts to government agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Got to love how the Republicans are proudly declaring they are defunding the police after using that as a weapon against the Democrats for years.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Congress unveils first six budget bills as government shutdown clock ticks​

Congressional lawmakers on Sunday released the details of the first six budget bills needed to keep government agencies funded before they run out of money and a partial government shutdown takes effect this coming weekend.

Funding for those departments was due to expire last Friday, March 1, but congressional leaders struck a deal on Wednesday to extend those deadlines by a week and avert a partial government shutdown. It was the fourth such funding extension this fiscal year, as Congress has struggled to settle on a long-term budget plan.

Democrats are trumpeting the continued full funding of a special food assistance program for women, infants and children. They also secured wins on rent assistance and pay for infrastructure employees like air traffic controllers and railway inspectors.

OK...

Meanwhile, Republicans are trumpeting victories on veterans’ gun ownership and funding cuts to government agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

It seems the GOP is defunding the police (and the environmental regulators).

 

[essentialsaltes]

House passes bill to avert partial shutdown, sends to Senate before deadline​

The legislation passed by a 339-to-85 vote and heads to the Senate, which must pass it by midnight Saturday to keep crucial agencies from shuttering when funding lapses. The bill, which was drafted by bipartisan leaders in both chambers, is not expected to face substantial opposition.

Far-right Republicans in the House had sought to use the appropriations process to significantly curtail spending by prohibiting funding for Planned Parenthood, slash resources for the Education Department, enact rigid new immigration restrictions and claw back some of the money for the White House’s climate agenda.

Most of those provisions did not make it into the final legislation, angering conservatives.Littering appropriations bills with culture-war poison pills — as House Republicans had done in versions of spending legislation last year — would have doomed its chances of passage. Vulnerable House Republicans would have shied away from some controversial measures and Democrats in the House and Senate would have opposed it.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has recently been more direct in defending the pathway he has charted to ensure the government does not shut down, as a majority of Republicans recognize they would get blamed for it — a hefty political price during an election year in which the GOP is fighting to keep and expand its two-vote majority.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Senate moves slowly toward passing spending bill as deadline nears​

The $459 billion spending bill passed the House on Wednesday and is widely expected to pass the Senate, as well — whenever lawmakers vote on it. That move had been expected earlier Friday, but some conservatives slowed down the march toward final passage to demand votes on various amendments.

Throughout Friday afternoon, a parade of far-right lawmakers took to the Senate floor to protest the legislation, which they said did not do enough to cut federal spending and lacked policy wins that conservatives on both sides of the Capitol demanded.

Other conservatives proposed amendments or refused to accede to requests from Senate leadership in both parties to cut off time for debate and allow a vote.

The Senate agreed to allow votes on four of the amendments before the vote on passage.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Senate moves slowly toward passing spending bill as deadline nears​

The $459 billion spending bill passed the House on Wednesday and is widely expected to pass the Senate, as well — whenever lawmakers vote on it. That move had been expected earlier Friday, but some conservatives slowed down the march toward final passage to demand votes on various amendments.

Throughout Friday afternoon, a parade of far-right lawmakers took to the Senate floor to protest the legislation, which they said did not do enough to cut federal spending and lacked policy wins that conservatives on both sides of the Capitol demanded.

Other conservatives proposed amendments or refused to accede to requests from Senate leadership in both parties to cut off time for debate and allow a vote.

The Senate agreed to allow votes on four of the amendments before the vote on passage.

The bill was passed this evening (about 75 minutes after your post). In the lovely language of legislative procedure:

On the Motion (Schumer Motion to Concur in the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 4366) 75 voting in the affirmative, 22 in the negative, the motion is passed.


Since both chambers have now passed the same bill (with the same text), the President can now sign it into law. (~ half the government funded for the next 7 months).

 

[wing2000]

Since both chambers have now passed the same bill (with the same text), the President can now sign it into law. (~ half the government funded for the next 7 months).

....so half the can has been kicked down the road for 7 months.

 

[Hans Blaster]

....so half the can has been kicked down the road for 7 months.

It's not so much kicked down the road for 7 months as Congress being 5 months late on their annual appropriations task.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Washington, D.C., is bracing for yet another funding fight this week, as members of Congress have until Friday to pass multiple spending bills or face a partial government shutdown.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Washington, D.C., is bracing for yet another funding fight this week, as members of Congress have until Friday to pass multiple spending bills or face a partial government shutdown.

Once they get through this one (and we can hope a final resolution on the remaining bills is met). Then there is just the foreign aid/Ukraine aid/national security bill and the House can go on a new speaker hunt. (Are we not entertained?)

 

[essentialsaltes]

Congressional leaders announce deal to fund rest of government​

with just days to go before a key deadline, members from both parties in the House and Senate will need to cooperate in order to prevent a partial government shutdown.

Speaker Mike Johnson announced the deal in a statement, saying he hopes the text of the legislation will be released “as soon as possible,” a key step expected before either chamber votes.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Congressional leaders announce deal to fund rest of government​

And now the bill itself.

Congress gets a $1.2 trillion spending bill days before shutdown​

House and Senate leaders unveiled new legislation that would fund the federal government for the next six months. But current funding is set to expire Saturday.​

Congressional leaders unveiled new federal funding legislation Thursday that would raise pay for military service members, eliminate U.S. funding for the U.N. relief agency in Gaza and bolster security spending at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The bill also includes a 6 percent cut to foreign aid programs, already a minuscule slice of federal spending, and a largely symbolic Republican win that prohibits nonofficial U.S. flags from flying atop American embassies. GOP lawmakers had hoped to use that provision, a slightly narrower version of which had previously been in place, to prevent Biden-nominated officials from displaying Pride flags at official locations at U.S. diplomatic outposts.

Certain Democratic priorities also saw significant funding boosts, including $1 billion more for early education program Head Start and $1 billion for climate resilience funding at the Defense Department. The legislation also provides an additional 12,000 special immigrant visas for Afghans who assisted the U.S. military and are attempting to escape the Taliban government.

 

[essentialsaltes]

House Freedom Caucus is Revolting... after passage of the remainder of the budget​

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene files motion to oust House speaker amid fighting over funding bill​

The final House vote on the funding bill was 286-134, with 112 Republicans and 22 Democrats voting against it. The legislation now heads to the Senate ahead of tonight's midnight shutdown deadline.

GOP leadership plan is to not recognize Greene to speak, meaning clock won’t start on effort to oust Johnson​

[This at least pushes things out two weeks while the House is in recess.]

 

[Arcangl86]

Oh goody, will we see another round of the GOP squabbling to elect a leader, this time only 7 months before the election?

 

[Elliewaves]

Sooo the most unproductive republican house in 150 years is gonna be even more unproductive in an election year? An election year in which trump is going to use their campaign money for his legal fees? I mean, please proceed.........

 

[BCP1928]

Sooo the most unproductive republican house in 150 years is gonna be even more unproductive in an election year? An election year in which trump is going to use their campaign money for his legal fees? I mean, please proceed.........

They're betting the ranch on Trump coming to power, whether he has the votes or not. All they have to do is stall.