Senate Passes HR 5860 – Clean CR

This evening, after hours of backroom dealing, the Senate took up HR 5860, the clean continuing resolution that the House pressed through earlier today, and passed it by a vote of 88 to 9. The Senate needed an unanimous consent process to consider the bill today and there was an open question about whether deals were in place to ensure that no one objected. The bill continues the FY 2023 funding rates for the government through November 17^th, 2023. The bill will be signed by the President tonight; even if it is slightly after midnight, there will be no governmental shutdown this week.

While the House bucked the control of the Republican 11 to pass the CR, that does not guarantee that the same deals will allow the passage of additional spending bills or approving conference committee versions of the final bill. There is also a question of a possible vacate the chair motion next week as the Republican fringe decides whether or not they will try to punish the Speaker for working with Democrats to pass the CR.

HR 5860 Passed in House – Clean Republican CR

In a surprise move, the House took up HR 5860 (committee print), the ‘Continuing Appropriations Act, 2024 and Other Extensions Act, under the suspension of the rules process, and passed it by a bipartisan vote of 335 to 91 with 90 Republicans voting Nay. The bill was not added to the schedule until just before it was brought to the floor by Rep Granger (R,TX) the Chair of the House Appropriations Committee. The bill would extend FY 2023 funding rates for the federal government through November 17^th, 2023. Section 129 of the bill adds $16 billion for FEMA’s disaster relief fund. A last-minute amendment was made to the bill by unanimous consent.

The Senate was scheduled to vote at 1:00 pm on the substitute language for HR 3935 that includes slightly dirtier continuing resolution language. That language would add supplemental spending for Ukraine, a controversial provision that is guaranteed to draw some opposition from Republicans. Interestingly, there are currently no Senators in the Senate chambers, I suspect that there are two separate conference meetings taking place determining if they can reach an agreement to consider HR 5860 under unanimous consent today.

It is possible that there will not be a government shutdown tonight, or (even more likely) if there is one, that it will be short.