The House and Senate remain far apart in reaching an agreement on Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 funding levels.
U.S. Senate: Earlier this week, Leader Schumer (D-NY) unveiled a bipartisan agreement on a short-term continuing resolution (CR) that would prevent a government shutdown and would fund the government until November 17, 2023, at current funding levels. Procedural hurdles could drag out a final vote in the Senate into the weekend. In addition, some Republicans have signaled battles ahead over Ukraine aid, disaster relief and border security measures that could delay Senate passage of the CR. The text of the Senate CR is here and section-by-section is here.
U.S. House: The House is moving on amendments to four appropriations bills – Agriculture, Defense, Homeland Security and Foreign Operations. It may vote on the bills today. In the meantime, the far right of the GOP continues to demand dramatic cuts in spending and some of the bills on the agenda this week have serious, painful cuts – the Agriculture bill’s spending level is cut by an additional $2.8 billion and drastically cuts to the vital Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Speaker McCarthy (D-CA) is planning to put the CR with significant cuts on the floor for a vote on Friday, just two days before the new fiscal year. The House CR cannot pass the Senate.
If the Senate passes its CR, the House likely will change the bill to include deep cuts, add the border bill (H.R. 2) and remove the funding for Ukraine – among other policy riders. Many are expecting a government shutdown.
This White House paper has links for Agency Contingency Plans should the government shut down.