Congress Extends Government Funding to December 16

Congress passed a 5-day extension to the deadline for funding the government for the rest of the fiscal year today.  The bill, H.R. 2250, passed the House by voice vote.  The Senate passed it yesterday.

The bill in its current from is short and to the point, simply replacing the date of December 11 with December 16 in the previously-enacted FY2016 Continuing Resolution (CR). H.R. 2250 is being used as the legislative vehicle for the CR-extension.  As introduced, it was on an unrelated topic, but was in a useful stage of the legislative process to move  forward quickly.  The Senate struck all the language in the original bill and replaced it with the extension to December 16.

House and Senate Republicans and Democrats continue to negotiate over a wide range of controversial policy provisions — riders — that have held up final agreement on the funding bill.   It is anticipated that they will reach agreement on a single bill that consolidates all 12 regular appropriations bills — an “omnibus” appropriations — to fund the government through September 30, 2016, but that is not a foregone conclusion.  They could simply pass another short term extension.

But the good news is that today, at least, there will not be a government shutdown for lack of funds.  The President still needs to sign the legislation; that should take place in the next several hours.