Congress Working to Avoid Shutdown

Less than two months after narrowly avoiding a government shutdown, Congress once again is facing an end-of-the-week deadline to extend current funding with another continuing resolution (CR) or face a lapse in appropriations after Friday, November 17. As of today, leadership and bipartisan majorities seem to be coalescing around the legislation laid out by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) that would continue current funding into the new year. A key vote to pass this measure in the House is expected this afternoon.

The House Republican conference has been intensely divided following the fight around the Speaker’s gavel, and progress on appropriations has been uneven. With the current stopgap CR scheduled to expire, Speaker Johnson over the weekend proposed a novel compromise to avoid a shutdown. His “laddered CR” would extend all government funding at current FY23 levels on two timelines: the Military Construction-VA, Agriculture, Energy and Water, and Transportation-HUD bills would be extended until January 19; the remaining eight bills, including Labor-HHS-Education, Defense, and Commerce, Justice, Science bills, would continue two weeks longer until February 2. Beyond the staggered deadlines, the legislation avoids the controversial issues that have dogged funding debates in recent weeks: it does not cut topline funding, does not include partisan policy riders, nor emergency funding for Ukraine, Israel, or the border.

House leadership hopes this mix of policies will provide the momentum to push the CR through both the House and Senate. The staggered approach is a nod to GOP conservatives who developed it as a way to sidestep the past dynamic of an end-of-the-year, holiday deadline that they argue empowers Democrats and opens the door to a sweeping omnibus spending package with funding increases and few policy riders. And the continuation of current funding levels and the absence of contentious policy riders is a play for Democratic support.

At this point, the laddered CR seems to be on a path to clear the House, and bipartisan Senate leadership seems willing to move it forward if and when it reaches them. Today, the House will consider the legislation under an expedited procedure that requires two-thirds of the full chamber to support the legislation so a substantial number of Democratic votes will be needed, particularly as dozens of Republicans are expected to oppose the bill because of the lack of spending cuts. It is not assured that the Speaker will stick to this course (given a similar dynamic with the first CR is what brought down former Speaker McCarthy), but members seem anxious to avoid a shutdown, carve out a little breathing space to negotiate final FY24 bills, and go home to celebrate Thanksgiving.

We will stay in touch with further developments. As always, Harvard’s DC-based federal relations office remains closely engaged on the University’s priorities and if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Suzanne Day (suzanne_day@harvard.edu), Kara Haas (kara_haas@harvard.edu), or Peter DeYoe (peter_deyoe@harvard.edu).