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Friday, March 29, 2024

House Reaches Deal To Avoid Government Shutdown Till February

Courtesy of ZeroHedge View original post here.

House Democrats have reached a spending deal to fund the government through Feb. 18 in yet another can-kick that avoids a shutdown on Friday at midnight.

House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLaurio (D-CT) announced the deal early Thursday, saying that an agreement had been reached on a continuing resolution (CR) which would maintain funding at the most recent level until a larger bipartisan agreement is eventually reached.

According to DeLaurio, the legislation “includes virtually no changes to existing funding or policy” – which will instead be included in a spending omnibus in the months ahead, according to The Hill. “However, Democrats prevailed in including $7 billion for Afghanistan evacuees. The end date is February 18. While I wish it were earlier, this agreement allows the appropriations process to move forward toward a final funding agreement which addresses the needs of the American people,” she added.

Given the Friday night deadline, House Democrats plan to put it to a vote later Thursday, with a Senate vote soon to follow.

As Bloomberg notes, the stopgap measure ‘puts agencies on autopilot, freezing in place program funding levels and forbidding new contracts, with few exceptions, one of which being $7 billion in funding to aid Afghan evacuees.’

Meeting the fast-approaching end-of-week deadline will require cooperation by Senate Republicans, who have the power to drag out the process. 

One potential impediment is a threat by a group of conservative Republicans to tie up the vote on a temporary government funding measure over their objections to federal Covid-19 vaccine and testing mandates. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and his Republican counterpart, Mitch McConnell, gave repeated assurances throughout the day Wednesday that negotiations were making progress and a deal was near.

I think we’re going to be OK,” McConnell told reporters. -Bloomberg

Some Republicans, however – including Marjorie Taylor Greene – have called on the GOP to shut down the government in order to prevent the implementation of a federal vaccine requirement. Unfortunately for MTG, she doesn’t have the votes.

The new stopgap bill is required because Congress was unsuccessful at passing any of the 12 annual appropriations bills required to keep the lights on.

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