On Wednesday night, the Senate passed a stopgap funding bill by a vote of 87-11.
Late Wednesday night, the Senate passed a continuing resolution (CR) to finance federal agencies through early next year, preventing a government shutdown just before the holiday season.
The law was approved by a vote of 87-11, with 10 Republicans voting nay and only one Democrat voting yes. Republican Senators John Cornyn and Tim Scott were missing from the vote.
The CR was voted by an overwhelming majority of 336-95 in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
Senator Chuck Schumer, D-New York, called Wednesday “a very, very good night for the American people” before declaring there would be no government shutdown.
In an attempt to stop Congress from combining all 12 spending bills into one enormous “omnibus” package, newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., put forth a plan on Saturday that would establish two distinct deadlines for funding various government departments. This would allow lawmakers to set more focused objectives for themselves to strive toward.
The remaining eight appropriations bills must be settled upon by February 2nd, while bills pertaining to military construction and Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Energy and Water, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development must be hammered out by January 19th.
In order to fulfill the deadline of Friday at midnight, leaders of the House and Senate agreed that another brief extension was required to decide on the government’s spending plans for the fiscal year 2023.
