Uncertainty over a potential government shutdown is rising after the Senate last Friday rejected a House-passed stopgap funding bill that also included spending flexibility for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons activities.
After the House earlier in the day narrowly approved a GOP-led continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government open through Nov. 21 with a 217 to 212 vote, the measure failed to reach the 60 votes required for passage in the upper chamber.
“I can’t stop Democrats from opposing our nonpartisan continuing resolution. If they want to shut down the government, they have the power to do so,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), said on the floor ahead of Friday’s votes. “But if they think they’re going to gain political points from shutting down the government over a clean, nonpartisan CR – something they voted for 13 times under the Biden administration – I would strongly urge them to think again.”
Facing a government shutdown deadline on Oct. 1, with Congress in recess and returning Sept. 29, House Republicans earlier last week unveiled the Nov. 21 CR stopgap funding proposal, which they touted as a “clean” CR that is “free of poison pills.”
The House GOP-led CR includes authorities allowing the Pentagon to boost the “rate of operations” for weapons activities in the National Nuclear Security Administration, and to maintain progress on the Virginia-class submarine programs, essentially allowing for flexible spending on both programs that would typically be barred under a stopgap funding measure.
The latter anomaly had been requested by the White House, which had asked that Congress include DoD authority to “obligate funding in the ‘Shipbuilding and Conversion, Navy’ account at a rate for operations necessary” to pay for the Virginia-class submarine program.
“Without the anomaly, funding would not be available for this purpose during the period of the CR,” the White House wrote to Congress this month.
The House-passed CR proposal, however, did not include the White House’s request for a $3.93 billion anomaly covering procurement of a Columbia-class submarine.
“Without this anomaly, the deployment plans for future [nuclear ballistic missile submarines] could result in delays in a day-to-day slip for the program,” the Donald Trump administration said.
The Senate voted 47 to 45 for the Democrats’ CR proposal, failing to reach the required 60 votes for passage, and then did not pass the House GOP-led version with a 44 to 48 vote.