The stopgap measure extends government funding at the current rate until Nov. 17 while 2024 budget negotiations play out.
President Joe Biden issued a statement late Saturday after he signed into law a stopgap measure to avert a government shutdown, saying, “we should never have been in this position in the first place.”
Congress alone has the authority to approve government spending via annual appropriations bills. Twelve such bills are needed for each key federal department. Without renewed authorization, the spending power ends on Sept. 30, the close of the government’s fiscal year.
Lawmakers had until Sept. 30 to pass either all 12 appropriations bills or a continuing resolution (CR). If they failed to do either, all nonessential government operations would have been suspended on Oct. 1.
“Tonight, bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate voted to keep the government open, preventing an unnecessary crisis that would have inflicted needless pain on millions of hardworking Americans,” the president said in a statement on Saturday.
Before it reached President Biden’s desk, the GOP-controlled House voted 335–91, with more Democrats than Republicans supporting the CR—H.R. 5860. The Democrat-controlled Senate later approved the bill in an 88–9 bipartisan vote.
The CR signed by President Biden on Saturday extends government funding at the current rate for 45 days—until Nov. 17—while 2024 budget negotiations play out.
The CR also includes aid for natural disasters and a reauthorization of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) funding through fiscal year 2028.
‘Should Never Have Been in This Position’
If no deal had been in place before Sunday, federal workers would have faced furloughs, more than 2 million active-duty and reserve military troops would have had to work without pay, and various programs and services that Americans rely on would have begun to face shutdown disruptions.
The stopgap bill ends the threat of such disruptions for now, but lawmakers now have just six weeks to finalize the appropriations bills.
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