January 17, 2024
On Sunday, January 14, 2024, Congressional leaders announced that an agreement had been reached that would avert a partial government shutdown that was set to begin on January 19, 2024.
Two months ago, on November 16, 2023, President Biden signed into law a two-tiered Continuing Resolution (CR) that extended temporary funding at current levels for some government agencies until January 19, 2024, and for other agencies until February 2, 2024.
Under the CR, funding for agencies dealing with agriculture, military construction/veterans affairs, energy and water, transportation, and housing and urban development was extended until January 19th; and the remaining agency appropriations, for the Departments of Commerce, Justice and Science, Defense, Financial Services, Homeland Security, Interior and Environment, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, as well as the Legislative Branch and state and foreign operations, were extended to February 2nd.
Now, with just days before the first deadline of January 19, 2024, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies (D-NY) have announced that a deal has been reached to pass another CR, with a similar two-tiered makeup, which would fund the aforementioned agencies through March 1 and March 8, 2024, respective to the January 19th and February 2nd deadlines.
Majority Leader Schumer was quoted on cbsnews.com saying, "To avoid a shutdown, it will take bipartisan cooperation in the Senate and the House to quickly pass the CR and send it to the President's desk before Friday's funding deadline." Minority Leader Jefferies sent a letter to House Democrats saying that this CR "maintains funding at the fiscal year 2023 level and is free of partisan poison pill policy changes. For these reasons, I am in strong support of the effort to keep the appropriations process moving forward and avoid a disruptive partial government shutdown."
Congress is expected to begin the process of voting on and passing the CR today, Tuesday, January 16, 2024.
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