The Senate on Tuesday took the first step toward passing a bill to keep the government funded into March, as leadership pushes for final passage in the days ahead to prevent a shutdown Friday at midnight. The upper chamber voted 68-13 to invoke cloture on a motion to proceed to a vehicle for a two-step stopgap continuing resolution. The vote gets the stopgap measure over the first procedural hurdle, just days after both sides announced a deal to prevent shutdown over the weekend. Under the deal, which was unveiled Sunday, both sides agreed to extend funding for four of the 12 annual funding bills through March 1, while negotiators try to hash out new spending levels for fiscal 2024. That includes money for agencies including the Food and Drug Administration and the departments of Agriculture; Energy; Transportation; and Housing and Urban Development. Congress would extend funding for the remaining eight bills through March 8 under the deal including the departments of Defense; Homeland Security; Labor; Health and Human Services; and Education.
For today, the Senate convened at 10:00 A.M. and will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R.2872, the legislative vehicle for the Continuing Resolution, post-cloture.
First votes in the House are expected at 1:30 P.M. when the House will take up H. Res. 957 – Denouncing the Biden administration’s open-borders policies, condemning the national security and public safety crisis along the southwest border, and urging President Biden to end his administration’s open-borders policies as well as H.R. 3058 – Recruiting Families Using Data Act.
