House Amends and Re-Passes HR 3055 – FY 2020 CR

Yesterday the House took up the Senate amendment to HR 3055, FY 2020 spending minibus, and approved that amendment after substituting new language for the Senate amendment. The approval vote was nearly a party-line vote of 231 to 192 (10 Democrats and 12 Republicans switched sides). The bill goes to the Senate, probably today.

A party-line vote normally means that the bill will have a difficult time being considered in the Senate. It certainly would not normally be expected to be considered under the unanimous consent process; a single voice can stop that consideration. To be considered under regular order means that the bill would require a 2/3 vote on the debate cloture motion and a party-line vote normally means that there would not be sufficient vote to close debate.

Earlier this year when the House passed HR 4378, the current CR, the vote was more bipartisan; 301 to 123. The conservative members of the House generally object to continuing resolutions (especially short-term CRs) because they interfere with program changes and generally shortchange most spending programs.

That earlier CR passed in the Senate by a mostly bipartisan vote of 81 to 16. This was roughly the same percentage (about 70%) of yes votes in both the House and Senate. If that vote standard holds for this bill, HR 3055 may not pass the Senate as it would not be able to achieve cloture.

During yesterday’s debate, everyone agreed that continued funding of the Federal government was an important goal and that a full spending bill was needed. The Republican opposition to this CR, however, was outlined by Rep. Grainger (R,), Ranking Member of the Appropriations Committee (pg H9038):

“At that time [passage of HR 4378] the budget deal had just been signed into law, and the Senate had not yet started consideration of full appropriations measures for fiscal year 2020. By voting for the last CR, I argued at the time that we would provide enough time for appropriators in the House and the Senate to complete work on full-year appropriations bills.

“Unfortunately, not only has that not happened, there still has not even been an agreement reached on spending levels for those bills. No business in the world could survive on temporary funding doled out on a month-to-month basis. The uncertainty created by the habit Congress finds itself in of repeated CRs and the continual threat of a shutdown is crippling, especially for our military.”

The vote today in the Senate could go either way. And, if the bill does pass, we still have to wait for the last-minute decision by the President on whether or not he will sign the bill. Indications are that he will, but there is no telling what he will do when the time comes to act.

NOTE: The current CR expires at midnight tomorrow night.