Chicago – February 29, 2024
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives adopted the plan less than 36 hours before funding ran out, and the Democratic-majority Senate set out on Thursday to pass it to prevent a partial government shutdown.
In the House, 207 Democrats and 113 Republicans voted in favor of the short-term stopgap bill, 320 to 99, buying Congress additional time to decide on funding for the entire fiscal year that started on October 1.
Some House Republicans declared that their chamber would focus on assistance for Israel, Ukraine, and other friends if Congress resolved the ongoing budget dispute. The Senate passed a $95 billion foreign aid bill earlier this month.
The majority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, expressed his optimism that his chamber would pass a continuing resolution, or “CR,” on Thursday night and send it to President Joe Biden for signature into law.
It would establish a financing deadline of March 22 for other government agencies and prolong federal money, which ends at midnight on Friday, by one week.
Almost two months have passed since Schumer and Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson reached an agreement on a level of discretionary spending for the fiscal year that would total $1.59 trillion.
Johnson, who has only held the speakership since late October, once more depended on a procedural maneuver that necessitated the majority of Democrats’ support to approve the CR. This approach could infuriate hardline conservatives.
This, along with 97 “no” votes from his 219-member Republican conference, may pose a challenge for the speaker when he considers six full-year spending measures the next week and then turns his attention to the contentious matter of aid to Ukraine.
Three House Republicans, including Michael McCaul, the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, forecasted that Johnson would prioritize aid to Israel, Ukraine, and US allies in the Indo-Pacific region after completing six more funding measures by March 22.
