House Passes FY 2018 Continuing Resolution

This morning the House agreed to the Senate amendment to HR 601 after adding an additional amendment that provided for continued funding for the federal government through December 8^th, 2017. Yesterday’s amendment to HR 601 in the Senate had added a similar short-term extension of the debt limit as well as funding for the response to Hurricane Harvey. The Senate is expected to take up the much-amended bill early next week. This removes the near-term deadline of September 30th for all three of these potential problems.

The vote in the House was a significantly bipartisan vote of 316 to 90. In line with the agreement reached earlier this week between President Trump and the Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, all 183 Democrats in the House voted for the bill, more than offsetting the 90 Republicans that voted against the measure.

After the morning vote, the House continued to work on the floor action to amend and pass HR 3354, the omnibus spending bill that it has been working on since Wednesday. With the end-of-month deadline erased, the House did not find it necessary to stay late today to finish work on the measure. A final vote is expected Wednesday.

While the expected passage of HR 601 in the Senate next week is expected to obviate the short term need to pass HR 3354, a spending bill does need to be crafted to be signed by the President by December 8^th. Passage of this bill would allow for consideration and amendment in the Senate and allow a conference committee time to work out the differences between the two houses of Congress in something approaching regular order.