The clock is ticking as the House of Representatives and Senate look to avoid a government shutdown as the stopgap's extension on funding is set to expire later this week.
With less than an hour to spare, President Joe Biden signed the continuing resolution avoiding a shutdown on Oct. 1, but with that funding only set to go through Nov. 17, Congress has days to avert a shutdown. With no time to waste in the bid to avoid a government shutdown, here is what Congress must do to avoid funding expiring for the federal government.
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Pass a Continuing Resolution
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has floated a clean continuing resolution through Jan. 15, 2024, which would be a "laddered" stopgap, meaning agencies would only be funded for different amounts of time rather than a blanket extension on funding for the entire federal government.
The idea has garnered opposition from Democrats, who have favored a clean stopgap bill that would fund the entire government for an extended period, such as what was passed on Sept. 30.
Johnson's proposal that was unveiled to House Republicans on Saturday called for a "two-part" approach to the continuing resolution, which would extend funding for the Agriculture, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development, and the Energy and Water appropriations bills until Jan. 19, 2024, while the remaining appropriations bills would be extended until Feb. 2, 2024. The House speaker told the GOP conference he hopes to bring the continuing resolution, which has no additional funding for Israel, on Tuesday.
Finish passing the remaining appropriations bills
The House has passed seven of the 12 necessary appropriations bills, while the Senate has only passed three of the 12 appropriations bills for fiscal 2024.
Three appropriations bills may be considered by the House this week, according to a notice from House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) last week. The three appropriations bills include the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development funding bill; the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies funding bill; and the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education funding bill.
All bills must be passed by the House and Senate before they can head to the president's desk, with negotiations usually taking place between the two chambers regarding differences between funding levels in each bill. The process of passing all 12 appropriations bills can be time-consuming, which has led to omnibus bills combining several or all of the separate appropriations being the way funding has been passed in recent years.
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A government shutdown would see all nonessential aspects of the federal government close until funding is passed by Congress and signed into law by the president. The longest and most recent government shutdown occurred from December 2018 until January 2019.
Most federal workers are furloughed until funding can be passed, while the remaining federal workers deemed essential would remain on the job without pay. All federal employees, including furloughed ones, would receive backpay once the shutdown ends.