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Category: Congressional To Do

Shut Down

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) held a procedural vote, known as a cloture vote, to end debate and move on to voting with the the four-week continuing resolution (CR) that the House passed earlier this week. After holding the vote open for over an hour, the measure failed to receive the 60 votes needed end debate.

After cloture was rejected, McConnell announced that he would ask senators to vote on a CR through Feb. 8 in the near term — presumably after the weekend, so terms can be negotiated.

The federal Office of Personnel and Management posted the following status at 1:38 am EST. “Due to a lapse in appropriations, Federal government operations vary by agency.  Employees should refer to their home agency for guidance on reporting for duty.”

The federal government is shut down.

All sides think that they are going to win the public opinion  in any shutdown fall out.

Stay tuned.

Shut Down Likely

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At midnight tonight, the Continuing Resolution passed in December 2017 will expire. Presently, it does not look like Congress will be able to agree on a short or long term funding solution, and a shutdown is highly likely.

Agencies are circulating memos advising staff how to proceed in the high likelihood there is a shutdown and nonessential federal employees will be furloughed without pay.

OMB has just released a memorandum – Planning for Agency Operations during a Potential Lapse in Appropriations – that includes FAQs regarding grants and contracts (Section II, pages 3-9).

The University of Washington leadership has developed information as to impacts of a shutdown, which will occur in three major areas: research funding, student aid, and Medicare and Medicaid payments. Those impacts can be found here. 

If the federal government does shut down, significant impacts will not be immediately felt by the UW community. Initial impacts will be felt by those in the research community needing to communicate with the federal enterprise such as researchers needing engagement or approval from program managers or researchers applying for grants.  Impacts will be magnified if a shut down is prolonged and goes for multiple weeks.

The University does a plan in place to have adequate cash on hand from existing accounts to cover anticipated expenditures in the event of delayed federal reimbursement. We estimate that we could go at least one month, possibly more, before layoffs or contract suspensions would be initiated.

To follow developments on budget negotiations minute to minute, the Washington Post is counting down the time to midnight.

The Federal Relations team is continuing to monitor the situation and will continue to provide updates.

CR Stymied in Senate

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After the House passage of the four-week CR, the Senate then voted to begin deliberations. However,  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appears to lack the 60 votes required to send the CR to President Trump for his signature. There are 51 Republican Senators and several Republican Senators have announced they would not vote for the House-passed measure.

House and Senate Democrats are largely united in opposing the measure, partly out of frustration with the failure of congressional leaders to reach a bipartisan deal that would raise spending caps for the current fiscal year and offer a legislative fix to protect immigrant “Dreamers” from deportation.

House Passes CR

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The House voted 230 – 197 to approve a continuing resolution (CR) that would fund the government through February 16 and renew the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for six years. It does not include any immigration provisions to address DACA, Dreamers, or the border.

The measure goes on to the Senate.

Funding Crisis Averted, Tax Bill is Signed Today

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both chambers of Congress passed yet another FY2018 continuing resolution this evening, the House by a vote of 231-188 and the Senate by a vote of 66-32.  This most recent CR would keep the government running through 19 January, and has been sent to the president for his signature, just a day before the current CR is set to expire.

To avoid a Christmas shutdown, the  the House released the text of a short-term Continuing Resolution (CR) that funds the federal government through January 19, 2018 late Wednesday night.   Conservatives and defense hawks wanted a full Pentagon budget adopted, the measure was certain to be rejected in the Senate, where Democrats were poised to block it. However, the House leadership concession to defense hawks the CR would add $4 billion for missile defense and $700 million to repair damaged Navy ships.

The measure also would include some temporary extensions for the Children’s Health Insurance Program until March 31, the National Flood Insurance Program, and an extension of the Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act until January 19.

Of final note, the CR includes language to waive the $125 billion in statutory automatic “PAYGO” cuts that would otherwise be triggered because of the $1.5 trillion cost of the tax bill which Congress passed earlier this week.

The House and Senate have adjourned until the new year.

Meanwhile, with the PAYGO provisions waived, the White House will have a signing ceremony for the tax bill passed earlier this week.