{"id":34768,"date":"2024-01-22T00:05:55","date_gmt":"2024-01-22T05:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=34768"},"modified":"2024-01-22T00:07:47","modified_gmt":"2024-01-22T05:07:47","slug":"source-new-mexico-congress-averts-shutdown-with-short-term-spending-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2024\/01\/22\/source-new-mexico-congress-averts-shutdown-with-short-term-spending-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Source New Mexico: Congress averts shutdown with short-term spending bill"},"content":{"rendered":" \"U.S.<\/a>
The U.S. Capitol houses the legislative branch of the federal government. Photo by Indianz.Com (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n
Congress speeds through short-term government funding bill before Friday shutdown deadline\u00a0<\/div>\r\n
Monday, January 22, 2024<\/div>\r\n
By Jennifer Shutt, Source New Mexico<\/a> <\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n WASHINGTON, D.C — Congress will have until early March to finish work it was supposed to complete last fall \u2014 and will avert a partial government shutdown \u2014 under a bill both chambers approved with broad bipartisan support last Thursday.

<\/P>\r\nThe 77-18 vote<\/a> in the Senate and 314-108 vote in the House sent the bill to President Joe Biden, and he is expected to sign it before a Friday midnight deadline.

<\/P>\r\nThe short-term government funding bill will keep federal departments and agencies running under the spending levels and policies last approved during unified Democratic control of Washington.

<\/P>\r\nThe stopgap measure, often called a continuing resolution, or CR, is meant to give the Republican House and Democratic Senate more time to broker agreement on the dozen full-year appropriations bills that were supposed to become law by the start of the fiscal year on October 1.

<\/P>\r\nSenate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray, a Washington state Democrat, said she hoped this would be the last continuing resolution Congress uses during the current fiscal year.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cPassing this measure will allow us the time we need to hammer out those funding bills for fiscal year \u201824 after many months of needless delays,\u201d Murray said.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cI think we all want this to be a drama-free and reliable process, so I hope House Republicans will work with us to make that possible now too, which means leaving extreme partisan demands at the door,\u201d she added.

<\/P>\r\nHouse Appropriations Chair Kay Granger appeared to reject that sentiment during debate on the continuing resolution in that chamber.

<\/P>\r\nThe Texas Republican noted that \u201cfinding common ground will not be easy\u201d since the GOP plans to press to include their conservative policy riders in the dozen full-year spending bills.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cI want to be clear, as we begin to conference these bills, House Republicans are committed to fighting for meaningful policy changes,\u201d Granger said.

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Agreed-upon spending levels<\/div>\r\n\r\n\t\r\nAppropriators in the House and Senate will negotiate those dozen bills under spending levels agreed to earlier this month when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, and Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, reached agreement to spend $886.3 billion on defense and $772.7 billion for domestic accounts.

<\/P>\r\nBut the chairs and ranking members in the House and Senate tasked with working out bicameral agreement on the dozen full-year government funding bills need more time to agree how much should be spent on each.

<\/P>\r\nThey\u2019ll also need to decide what to do about spending policy amid the thorny disagreements.

<\/P>\r\nSo Congress drafted its third CR of the fiscal year with a new deadline of March 1 to approve the Agriculture-FDA, Energy-Water, Military Construction-VA and Transportation-HUD spending bills.

<\/P>\r\nThe other eight bills will need to become law by March 8 under the CR.

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Rand Paul, Roger Marshall amendments rejected<\/div>\r\n\r\n\t\r\nTwo Republican senators attempted to change the continuing resolution before it went to the House, though they were unsuccessful.

<\/P>\r\nThe Senate voted 44-50 <\/a>\u00a0to reject an amendment from Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul that would have barred \u201cany direct United States assistance, loan guarantee, or debt relief to the Palestinian Authority or any other Palestinian governing entity in the West Bank and Gaza.\u201d

<\/P>\r\nThe provision included several carve outs that would allow aid to continue if the Palestinian Authority or another Palestinian governing body in the West Bank or Gaza were to take seven steps, including if it \u201cformally recognized the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state\u201d and removed \u201call individuals with terrorist ties from security services.\u201d

<\/P>\r\n\u201cAll American aid should be conditioned on recipients\u2019 practice of protecting basic human rights,\u201d Paul said.

<\/P>\r\nMaryland Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin spoke against the amendment, saying Paul\u2019s proposal would have compromised the United States\u2019 ability to \u201cwork to make sure there\u2019s a future for the Palestinian people living in peace with Israel.\u201d

<\/P>\r\n\u201cOur ally Israel is at war to destroy Hamas terrorists, not in a war against the Palestinian people\u201d Cardin said.

<\/P>\r\nKansas Sen. Roger Marshall was unsuccessful in getting his colleagues to go along with a so-called motion to commit, which would have sent the bill to the Appropriations Committee and required that panel to rewrite it to last through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. That vote was 13-82.\u00a0<\/a>

<\/P>\r\n\u201cA full-year CR through September 30, would result in a spending cut of $73 billion, bringing our total discretionary spending down to $1.56 trillion; a significant cut from the $1.66 trillion funding deal that\u2019s in the works currently,\u201d Marshall said. \u201cThis is the fiscally responsible decision that the American people deserve and Congress has an obligation to make.\u201d

<\/P>\r\nMurray and Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, both rejected the idea, saying it would undo all the work their committee has done on the annual government spending bills.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cAdopting this motion would wipe out the work of the Appropriations Committee that led to 12 standalone bills being reported last summer with overwhelming bipartisan support,\u201d Collins said. \u201cIt would also lock in dangerously inadequate funding levels for our national security and lead to cuts in other vital programs serving our veterans, older Americans and low income families.\u201d

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