Another looming government shutdown

[RTH10260]

I cannot wait until candidate Donald orders Mike Johnson to shut down the government

[Volkonski]

Federal government to begin the formal process of preparing for partial shutdown – again

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/23/politics ... index.html

Congress is quickly approaching a pair of government funding deadlines, with one week to go before a potential partial shutdown and lawmakers at an impasse with no clear plan in place to avoid it.

On Friday, the federal government will formally initiate the process of preparing for a potential shutdown, participating in the mandatory-but-standard process of releasing shutdown guidance to agencies ahead of the March 1 funding deadline. That means federal departments and agencies impacted by the first deadline will need to update and review their shutdown plans.

If this feels familiar, that’s because this is the fourth time since September that lawmakers have run up against a funding deadline, passing stopgap bills in the nick of time in September, November and once more in January to keep the government running.

In January, lawmakers passed a two-step, short-term funding extension setting up a pair of new deadlines on March 1 and March 8. In the absence of a deal in the coming days on a broader funding package or a short-term stopgap bill, known as a “continuing resolution,” a set of departments will run out of money at the end of next Friday, March 1.

The two-step plan passed in January extends funding through March 1 for parts of the federal government including military construction and the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation and Energy. The rest of the government – anything not covered by the first step – is funded until March 8.

While bipartisan, bicameral talks continue, House Republicans remain divided on the best path to keep the government open, with appropriators haggling over conservative policy riders deemed poison pills by Democrats – all setting up another complicated test for House Speaker Mike Johnson and his narrow majority.

In the meantime, the behind-the-scenes work of preparing for a partial shutdown still has to happen. The standard procedure laying out the steps toward bringing non-essential government functions to a halt will get underway later this week for all federal government departments and agencies – not just those impacted by the March 1 deadline, an administration official told CNN.

[Volkonski]

House conservative demands stall efforts to avert shutdown

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4490 ... press.coop

Congressional leaders failed to unveil the long-awaited compromise appropriations bills over the weekend, blowing through a Sunday target date floated last week and, as a result, leaving members wondering about a path forward just days ahead of the looming deadline.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said House Republicans were responsible for the holdup, writing in a letter to colleagues on Sunday that conservatives in the lower chamber “need more time to sort themselves out.” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), however, dismissed his “counterproductive rhetoric,” saying that new requests from Democrats had delayed the process.

The blame-game preview comes as hardliners are pressuring Johnson to use the appropriations process to extract policy concessions from Democrats after the Speaker cut two previous spending deals with lawmakers across the aisle, which incensed members of the right-flank.

At the same time, Democrats, Senate Republicans and the White House are pushing for a bipartisan deal to keep the lights on in Washington, a message that will ring loud and clear for Johnson on Tuesday when President Biden hosts the top four congressional leaders to discuss government funding.

Those dynamics are thrusting the Speaker into a familiar — yet difficult — decision: Cave to conservatives and force a shutdown that would be politically perilous for Republicans, or break from GOP hardliners and work out a spending deal with Democrats that risks sparking a rebellion on the right.

Prominent lawmakers are imploring him to choose the latter.

“It is my sincere hope that in the face of a disruptive shutdown that would hurt our economy and make American families less safe, Speaker Johnson will step up to once again buck the extremists in his caucus and do the right thing,” Schumer said Sunday.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — who on Monday said a shutdown would be “harmful to the country” — called for full cooperation among lawmakers in the sprint to avert a funding lapse.

[AndyinPA]

I wonder why it only happens when the repubs are in the House and/or Sentate.

[Volkonski]

Head of Freedom Caucus bashes funding deal, vows shutdown fight

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4497 ... -coverage/

The head of the hardline House Freedom Caucus is bashing the nascent funding agreement hashed out by leaders of both parties, warning that conservatives would be willing to force a government shutdown to secure steeper cuts and policy preferences.

Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) has led the charge among the far-right lawmakers urging Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to fight for scores of conservative policy riders to accompany the 2024 spending bills. Absent that, those Republicans want the Speaker to champion a stopgap bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), to extend government funding at current 2023 levels through the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends on Oct. 1.

The latter strategy would trigger an automatic, 1 percent cut to federal programs of all types beginning on May 1 — a stipulation of last summer’s bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) designed to encourage lawmakers to reach an agreement on 2024 spending or face reductions to popular programs.

Good said that 1 percent cut is far preferable to the deal Johnson endorsed with the leaders of both parties and both chambers, which adopts higher spending caps established by those same leaders in January. He’s also calling for a series of policy changes, including tougher border security measures and a scaling back of the government’s spying powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

“I would do a CR through Sept. 30 that triggers the FRA caps that would cut about $100 billion from the deal,” Good said Wednesday evening in the Capitol.

“I’d attach border security to it. I would attach [the] Israel pay-for. And I’d attach FISA … reforms. That’s what I’d like to see happen. And we ought to be willing to have a shutdown fight to force it to happen.”

[p0rtia]

Take Every Hostage You Can. The long-running GOP policy for power.

[Volkonski]

House passes stopgap bill to avert government shutdown, Senate must act next

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/29/politics ... index.html

The House of Representatives voted Thursday to pass a stopgap bill to avert a partial government shutdown at the end of the week. The measure will next need to be taken up and passed by the Senate.

Congress is confronting a pair of shutdown deadlines – on March 1 and March 8. At the end of the day Friday, funding will expire for a series of key government agencies if lawmakers do not pass the stopgap before that time.

The House vote was 320 to 99 with 113 Republicans voting in favor and 97 Republicans voting against. Two Democrats voted against the measure.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said he hopes his chamber will be able to address the short-term funding extension Thursday evening.

“I hope the Senate can pass the short-term CR as soon as tonight but that will require all of us working together,” the Democrat from New York said. Short-term funding extensions are known on Capitol Hill as continuing resolutions or CR for short. “There’s certainly no reason this should take a very long time. So let’s cooperate and get it done quickly.”

[AndyinPA]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... t-shutdown

The Senate has passed a short-term funding bill following a House vote on Thursday afternoon, narrowly averting a partial government shutdown that was due to occur this weekend.

Ahead of the Senate vote, the majority leader, Chuck Schumer, addressed the chamber floor, saying that he saw “no reason this should take a very long time”.

“This agreement is proof that when … bipartisanship is prioritized, when getting things done for the American people takes a high priority, good things can happen, even in divided government.”

The temporary extension funds the departments of agriculture, transportation, interior and others through 8 March. It funds the Pentagon, homeland security, health and state through 22 March.

“These bills will adhere to the Fiscal Responsibility Act discretionary spending limits and January’s top-line spending agreement,” congressional leaders said on Wednesday.

The extension comes after congressional leaders said there was agreement on six of the 12 annual spending bills and plans for them to be signed before March 8, before they would face another partial shutdown.

The short term extension bill is on its way to Joe Biden, who is expected to sign it ahead of its Saturday shutdown deadline.

Another kick of the can.

[raison de arizona]

Another kick of the can.

Biden should refuse to sign it until the Rs come to the table on the border bill.

[tek]

this_time_for_sure2.jpg (66.28 KiB) Viewed 375 times

[RTH10260]

not again

US government faces another shutdown: what you need to know
Congress needs to pass legislation by Saturday to avert another government shutdown – will it happen?

Joan E Greve in Washington
Tue 19 Mar 2024 17.40 CET

Congress faces its third shutdown deadline of the month this week, as much of the federal government is expected to run out of funding by Friday at midnight.

Both chambers of Congress must approve six appropriations bills before Saturday to get the legislation to Joe Biden’s desk and avert a partial shutdown. Although the current fiscal year started more than five months ago, House Republicans have struggled to pass appropriations bills due to demands from hard-right members to include controversial provisions in the legislation.

As a result, Congress has been forced to pass four stopgap bills since the fiscal year began in October, and members hope they can finally conclude the appropriations process this week.

But disputes over the Department of Homeland Security’s budget repeatedly hampered negotiations, raising serious doubts about whether members would be able to pass a spending package in time to prevent a funding lapse.

The White House announced on Tuesday that negotiators had reached a deal on homeland security funding, but it remains unclear whether Congress will have enough time to pass the proposal before Saturday.

Here’s everything you need to know about the shutdown threat:




https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... n-congress

[RTH10260]

Let's hope that Sleepy Joe is not out on the golf course but in the Oval Office to sign the bill ...

US Congress releases $1.2tn spending package to avert shutdown
Speaker Johnson will have to rely on Democratic votes to get measure through House and to Senate in less than two days

Joan E Greve
Thu 21 Mar 2024 12.57 CET

Congressional leaders unveiled a $1.2tn spending package to fund much of the federal government on Thursday, with less than two days left to avert a partial shutdown.

Leaders of both parties celebrated the policy wins they notched in the negotiations over the bill, which will fund the departments of state, defense, homeland security and others through September.

In a statement hailing the legislation, the House speaker, Republican Mike Johnson, noted that the package would direct more resources to border patrol and rescind “another $6 bn in unused Covid-era slush funds”. The immigration provisions include funding for 22,000 border patrol agents, marking the highest level ever, and an increase in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention capacity by more than 8,000 beds.

The bill will also cut off funding for the main UN relief agency that provides humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, a proposal endorsed by many Republicans, as the region faces widespread famine and other disease.

“Overall, during the FY24 appropriations process, House Republicans have achieved significant conservative policy wins, rejected extreme Democrat proposals, and imposed substantial cuts to wasteful agencies and programs while strengthening border security and national defense,” Johnson said.

Meanwhile, Democrats praised the bill’s investments in childcare and educational programs, saying they successfully prevented Republicans from slashing funding for many vital government services.

“We defeated outlandish cuts that would have been a gut punch for American families and our economy,” said Senator Patty Murray, the Democratic chair of the Senate appropriations committee. “And we fought off scores of extreme policies that would have restricted Americans’ fundamental freedoms, hurt consumers while giving giant corporations an unfair advantage, and turned back the clock on historic climate action.”

The House is expected to approve the package on Friday, leaving the Senate with just hours to pass the bill before the shutdown deadline at midnight. If the Senate does not pass the bill in time, about 70% of the federal government will shut down at 12.01am on Saturday.



https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... t-shutdown

[northland10]

Let's hope that Sleepy Joe is not out on the golf course but in the Oval Office to sign the bill ...

He's probably thinking about wearing tennis shoes while signing. Treason!!!

[Volkonski]

House passes bills to avert a government shutdown; package now heads to the Senate

https://www.npr.org/2024/03/22/12401486 ... press.coop

The House of Representatives passed the remaining six appropriations bills for fiscal year 2024 on Friday morning, setting up a tight turnaround for the Senate to vote on the package before a midnight deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown.

The $1.2 trillion package includes defense, homeland security, financial services and general government, labor-HHS, the legislative branch, and state-foreign operations. It funds the federal government until the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

The bills needed two-thirds support to pass. The final vote was: 286-134.

There were warning signs Thursday night that the vote may be tighter than GOP leadership expected.

Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., who chairs the Labor-HHS subcommittee, said he'd be voting against the package because of earmarks senators on both sides of the aisle inserted into the bill.

"This is not the bill that my subcommittee produced and supported. The Senate has taken liberties with their Congressionally Directed Spending requests that would never stand in the House," he said in a statement.

Republican members also expressed disappointment that the package doesn't go further on strengthening the Southern border and criticized the narrow timeframe between the 1000+ page text's release early Thursday morning and the Friday vote.

But Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., who chairs the appropriations subcommittee on defense, urged his colleagues to vote for the package.

"Every member must understand the impact of not passing this package. The only other option will be a full year continuing resolution, which will devastate our national security and put our country at risk," he said ahead of the vote. "A no vote is a vote for China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Hamas."

[AndyinPA]

The countdown to the next one begins now.

[Volkonski]

Biden signs government funding bill

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/23/politics ... index.html

President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law the $1.2 trillion legislation that completes the funding of federal agencies through the fiscal year, which ends September 30.

The House passed the package on Friday, and the Senate passed it early Saturday morning.

The bill addresses a slate of critical government operations, including the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, State and the legislative branch.

[p0rtia]

Is this where they remove the subsidy for low income rural broadband users?

[raison de arizona]

Republican members also expressed disappointment that the package doesn't go further on strengthening the Southern border

We already played that game!

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

House passes bills to avert a government shutdown; package now heads to the Senate



Republican members also expressed disappointment that the package doesn't go further on strengthening the Southern border and criticized the narrow timeframe between the 1000+ page text's release early Thursday morning and the Friday vote.

We are now in the the Find Out phase. Should have taken the border deal when it was first offered.