House Postpones Vote on FY2014 CR Till Next Week

The House will postpone until next week its vote on a FY2014 Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government operating after September 30.   The CR was introduced last night and a vote was expected tomorrow, but Republicans reportedly need more time to convince their own members to support the bill.

The bill, H. J. Res. 59, would keep the government operating at current levels — including the sequester — until December 15, 2013.  For space programs, the only exception was made for NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R (GOES-R) weather satellite programs, which would be funded sufficiently to ensure their launch dates do not slip.  The total amount of funding in the bill is $986.3 billion.

Democrats oppose the bill because they obkect to the sequester and because an associated House rule would require the Senate to vote on a separate bill to defund Obamacare before voting on the CR.  It does not require the Senate to agree to defund Obamacare, only that a vote take place according to The Hill newspaper.

Some House Republicans oppose the bill because it does not tie the fate of FY2014 federal funding to delaying or defunding Obamacare more directly.  They want the CR itself to include Obamacare defunding rather than allowing two separate votes.   Enough House Republicans oppose the bill that the House leadership decided to postpone action until next week.  They will use the extra time to try and convince enough of their own members to vote aye to ensure passage of the bill, since they do not expect any favorable Democratic votes.   Those House Republicans do not want the government to shut down for lack of funding for fear it will hurt their chances of retaining control of the House in next year’s elections.