The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed legislation to extend the continuing resolution until Dec. 20, to provide lawmakers with an extra month to agree upon outstanding fiscal year 2020 funding bills.
The bill, a House amendment to H.R. 3055, passed by a vote of 231-192, with 12 Republicans voting to support the bill and 10 Democrats voting in opposition. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) was the sole GOP member of the House Armed Services Committee to vote for the bill. Seven House members were not present for the vote, including HASC member and Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii).
The current fiscal 2020 began on Oct. 1 without Congress fully passing any appropriations legislation. The House has passed 10 of 12 spending measures and the Senate has passed one. The current stopgap bill keeps the federal government running through Thursday at prior-year funding levels.
Some detractors said they voted against the new continuing resolution because it allows Congress to kick the can down the road instead of working out actual budget deals. Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), ranking member of the HASC seapower and projection forces subcommittee, said in a statement that the highest priority should be keeping the Department of Defense funded.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the Senate floor this week that he advocated for “A CR, as clean as possible, through Dec. 20, to enable more progress on appropriations before the end of the year.”
“A clean CR through Dec. 20 would pass the Senate. And the White House has indicated President Trump would sign it,” McConnell said. He did not indicate Tuesday when such a vote would take place.
Meanwhile, Senate appropriators do not appear any closer to reaching agreement on the remaining FY ’20 funding bills, including those for the Departments of Energy, Defense, and Homeland Security. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said talks continue at the staff level between his committee and the House’s counterpart, “but we haven’t resolved anything yet.”
“We seem to be getting closer and then we’re stalled,” he told reporters on Tuesday, adding that it would be “quite optimistic right now” to believe an agreement could be reached before the Senate leaves for a one-week recess over Thanksgiving.
