Congress reached a bipartisan agreement Wednesday night to keep the federal government funded through December 9 when lawmakers are expected to be in Washington for a lame-duck session after the election. The current fiscal year ends Friday September 30. The “continuing resolution,” HR. 5325, avoids a potential federal government shutdown and will continue to fund the government at current fiscal year 2016 levels. On Thursday, President Obama signed into law the spending package.
Neither party wanted to risk being blamed for a government shutdown just weeks before the presidential election.
The Senate passed the spending bill on Wednesday by a vote of 72 to 26, and the House of Representatives then approved the package the same evening by a vote of 342-85. The continued resolution had been stuck in debate since the Senate Appropriations Committee released it on September 22. One of the contentious issues was that an earlier Republican proposal contained aid for flood victims in Louisiana but not for victims of the lead-contaminated water in Flint, Michigan. Republicans maintained that the Flint issue was best dealt with in a separate bill related to water infrastructure.
The end date of December 9 was also troublesome. Conservative House Republians were pushing for the spending bill to last six months and expire in March 2017. They argued that a spending bill that lasts only through the middle of December means lawmakers will have to pass another spending bill before President Obama leaves office.
The last provisions in the legislation to be agreed upon included $1.1 billion in funding to fight the Zika virus, $500 million in flood relief in Louisiana and several other states, $37 million to curb prescription opioid addiction, and fiscal 2017 appropriations for military construction and veterans’ programs
With little legislative time left in the calendar year to pass appropriations bills out of committee after the presidential election, Senators and Members of the House both referenced an “omnibus” spending package which will likely be negotiated in December, when the current spending measure is set to expire.
