U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks during a press conference following a Senate Democratic luncheon on the U.S. Capitol on September 28, 2022 in Washington, DC.
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate approved a one-week extension of federal government funding, averting a partial government shutdown that was scheduled to start Saturday.
The measure, which passed 71 to 19, gives lawmakers an extra week to barter and pass a comprehensive bill to fund federal agencies through the fiscal 12 months, which ends Sept. 30.
The U.S. House passed its version of the one-week extension on Wednesday by a vote of 224-201, with nine Republicans crossing party lines to support the bill.
While that vote was technically bipartisan, just one returning Republican voted for it. The opposite eight GOP votes got here from members who’re leaving Congress at the tip of the 12 months, either retiring or because they lost reelection.
The Senate was under pressure Thursday to pass the bill at once, and without objections from individual senators that would delay a vote under the expedited procedure getting used to pass the measure.
“We must always move quickly to avert a shutdown today, with none unwelcome brouhaha that has caused shutdowns in years past,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Thursday morning.
Schumer pledged that either side would spend the remainder of the day working to get the seven day “continuing resolution,” or CR, bill finished.
The Senate vote over the stopgap CR took place under the shadow of much more high-stakes negotiations currently underway over an enormous omnibus spending bill that might fund all federal agencies through the tip of fiscal 12 months 2023 next September.
On Tuesday evening, the highest appropriator within the House, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the highest Republican and Democratic appropriators within the Senate, announced that they’d reached a framework agreement to start serious negotiations over an omnibus bill.
All three of them expressed optimism that an omnibus bill might be hammered out and passed before Congress leaves for Christmas, on Dec. 23.
Notably absent from the announcement, nonetheless, was the highest Republican appropriator within the House, Rep. Kay Granger of Texas.
House Republicans have little incentive to assist Democrats pass any spending bills before they take the bulk on Jan. 3.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has publicly advocated for a series of CR bills that might fund the federal government only into January, allowing him and his latest majority to tackle a broader spending bill once they have more leverage.
