Congressional Leaders Work to Avert Oct. 1 Shutdown

Johnson (left) and Schumer at a ceremony at the Capitol on Sept. 10. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

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Congressional leaders kicked off negotiations to avert a federal government shutdown.

With less than a month before funding authority for most agencies expires, senior appropriators in the GOP-led House and Democratic-controlled Senate have issued calls for bipartisanship as well as collaboration. The Appropriations committees in both chambers have advanced significantly different funding measures specific to homeland security, immigration and the social safety net.

The ongoing funding debate on Capitol Hill raises the potential for approving a short-term funding bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR). Such a CR would temporarily avert a shutdown. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) took aim at House Republican leaders for pushing a multi-month CR shortly after the August recess.

“Speaker [Mike] Johnson, scrap your plan. Don’t just delay the vote. Find a better one that can pass in a bipartisan way,” Schumer said Sept. 11. “Leader [Hakeem] Jeffries, the president and I will gladly and readily work with the speaker to keep the government open, just as we worked with him earlier this year on funding levels that honored our agreement from the debt ceiling debate.”

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Murray 

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Appropriations Committee chairwoman, urged colleagues to resolve partisan disputes and sign off on comprehensive funding legislation. “There is an awful lot happening in the world to let House Republicans leave our government on autopilot for six months,” Murray said Sept. 10. “There are real consequences to a reckless six-month CR: new programs that will not get started, finished programs that will not wind down, opportunities missed, agencies like the Social Security Administration will be spread thinner and thinner despite doing important work for the American people.”

“I’m here today to urge the House Republicans to get to the table, get serious and put the American people first,” she continued.

On the House side, Johnson (R-La.) accused Schumer and his leadership caucus of delaying the appropriations funding process. After lawmakers returned to Washington from the August break, House leaders sought to advance a short-term funding bill. The House leadership expressed a sense of urgency although they pulled their first attempt at a CR from floor consideration.

“The last train leaving the station is the CR, the continuing resolution — government funding. Why, because Chuck Schumer and the Senate have not passed a single appropriations bill. They have completely failed in their duty,” the speaker told Fox Business on Sept. 11. “So there’s nothing on the table for us to negotiate. So we have to do a resolution to keep the government going.”

Two days earlier, Rules Committee Chairman Michael Burgess (R-Texas), explained: “Current government funding expires at the end of the month. While House Republicans have been hard at work passing appropriations bills off the floor, Senate progress — or lack thereof — makes clear that more time is needed to complete the work of funding our federal agencies. This continuing resolution extends current funding for six months.”

The White House issued a veto threat on the speaker’s CR as it urged the GOP caucus to “engage in a bipartisan process that keeps the government open and provides much-needed emergency disaster funding for Americans who are trying to rebuild.”

This summer, the Senate Appropriations Committee backed a fiscal 2025 transportation bill that would provide $964.5 million for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. A House panel passed a version that would provide the trucking regulator with $909 million. The House bill would dedicate $200 million for truck parking programs. American Trucking Associations President Chris Spear touted the proposal: “We thank the members of the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee for prioritizing this funding that will benefit truck drivers and our supply chain.”

A partial federal shutdown would occur if Congress fails to clear for President Joe Biden funding bills before Oct. 1.