HR 4378 Passed in Senate – FY 2020 CR

Yesterday the Senate passed HR 4378, the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2020, and Health Extenders Act of 2019 by a bipartisan vote of 81 to 16. The Senate first took action on an amendment proposed by Sen. Paul (R,KY). That amendment would have reduced the spending rate during the duration of the CR by 2%. That amendment failed by a slightly closer margin of 24 to 73. The bill now goes to the President for signature.

There is an interesting article over at TheHill.com about the current prospects for getting spending bills done before this CR runs out on November 21^st, 2019. With the impeachment process having begun, I see little hope that an agreement can be reached on the more controversial programs (the Wall and immigration) so that a DHS spending bill can be passed. I suspect that we will go into 2020 facing a similar situation to that we saw earlier this year. The only question in my mind, how much of the government will be included in the shutdown this time.

Pundits have been pontificating that the impeachment move by Rep. Pelosi (D,CA) will put an end to legislative efforts in Congress. That is a gross, oversimplification {that is what pundits do, as opposed to gadflys like myself (GRIN)}. Controversial legislation will suffer (DHS spending would be a good example), but much of the legislative effort in Congress deals with either uncontroversial matters or matters where little actual action is being taken. Those measures will continue to make their way to the President’s desk.