Congress Averts Government Shutdown
with Stopgap Measure (Again)
With just a few days to spare, Congress passed another stopgap spending bill, avoiding a government shutdown. But because they could not agree on a long-term fiscal package, they will find themselves in this same situation in just two months. The President signed the bipartisan temporary spending bill into law at the end of last week. The so-called “laddered” continuing resolution, or CR, funds part of the government — including the Agriculture, Energy, Transportation, Housing, and Veterans Affairs departments through January 19. Moreover, it funds the Defense, Commerce, and Labor departments, as well as the other remaining parts of the government, through February 2.
The goal is to give Congress more time to negotiate. That means Congress will have to get back to work and come together to reach an agreement on long-term spending, and right now, they are tens of billions of dollars apart.
How They Voted:
House of Representatives: 336-95
Click HERE to see how your Representative voted.
Senate: 87-11
Click HERE to see how your Senators voted.
Although this short-term deal keeps the spending levels agreed to by the Speaker and the President in May in place, (the agreement that prevented cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid – the cuts that our union fought so hard against) we know these radical proposals will again be an issue. Extremists in the House have been pushing a budget that gives tax cuts to the wealthy in exchange for drastic cuts to critical programs that impact working families. We expect more of the same from them moving forward.
Congress should promote stability by coming to an agreement, not chaos by continuously kicking the can down the road. Stay tuned to Rapid Response for potential actions to ensure working people are not left out for the benefit of the wealthy.
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