Senate Passes Short-Term Spending Bill; Legislation Goes Back to House Where Next Step Uncertain

Legislative Update
September 27, 2013

Today, the Senate, in an effort to prevent a shutdown of the federal government, passed a short-term Continuing Resolution (CR) by vote of 54-44. The House of Representatives passed their version of the bill last week.

The bill (H.J.Res. 59) funds the government through November 15 (compared with the House-passed version of the bill, which funded the government through December 15) passed after Senate Democrats succeeded in stripping out House language defunding the Affordable Care Act(ACA).

Passage of the CR is necessary to keep the government operating once Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 begins on October 1 since Congress has not passed any of the 12 “regular order” appropriations bills.

The bill now goes back to the House of Representatives, where its fate is uncertain. House conservatives are determined to use the threat of a shutdown to force passage of a bill that defunds the ACA, which the President has said he will never accept.