U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson's (R-WI) uneasy support for a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government funded into February may well come down to Senate action on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the House voted 224 to 201, including nine Republicans voting with Democrats, to approve a one-week stopgap funding bill to keep government funded to the end of this week. The bill now is in the U.S. Senate with a drop-deadline of Friday, though the Senate might take up the measure Thursday.
Johnson is not a fan of a CR, saying in February that operating under continual threats of government shutdown "is the height of dysfunction we see every day in Washington," but this month he signaled a CR is the lesser evil. After all, a Republican-majority House is coming.
"As much as I hate the dysfunction a Continuing Resolution represents, a massive omnibus would be worse," Johnson said in a Twitter post Friday, Dec. 9. "Let's pass a CR that will allow a Republican House to pass a more fiscally responsible spending bill early next year."
Now that the House stopgap funding bill is in the Senate, Johnson is still keeping his cards close to his vest, saying Wednesday, "We're not saying we're going to," when he was asked whether he'd allow the CR to proceed. However, his call for a "clean continuing resolution" to fund the government until Feb. 4, after Republicans take over the House, has support, including from Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL).
"The answer is now," Scott said on the Senate floor Tuesday. "We say, 'enough is enough' today. And we start by saying, 'no' to a massive omnibus spending bill and approving the simple Continuing Resolution being offered by my good friend, Sen. Johnson of Wisconsin. Doing this allows the new Congress to put together a real budget that’s balanced. Which is what we should always be doing anyway."
Scott also indicated that the clean CR also has the support of Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Braun (R-IN).
It isn't only Republicans who seem to favor a CR. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said on Monday that the Senate is working on the passage of a continuing resolution, though not so far ahead as Johnson and other Republicans would like. Many news outlets, including Reuters, have reported the CR Schumer favors would keep the federal government operating only an additional week to make time for a bipartisan agreement on an omnibus spending bill for all of fiscal year 2023.
"Over the weekend, appropriators held positive and productive conversations," Schumer said on Monday. "Later this week members should be prepared to take quick action on a CR, a one-week CR, so we can give appropriators more time to finish a full-funding bill before the holidays."
That omnibus bill was supposed to have passed by the fiscal year's beginning in October. As it stands, government funding ends Friday. Without a resolution, federal workers could be furloughed. That brings back memories of the shutdown four years ago that lasted more than a month, furloughed many government workers and almost closed major airports.
Friday's deadline was set by the CR passed in late September, news outlets, including CWLA, have reported. That stopgap funding bill was passed by the Senate 72 to 25, after more than 200 Republican members of the House voted against it. Republicans against the CR in September objected to inadequate funding for border security and no solution for inflation and supply chain issues. Some Republicans also said they supported delaying a larger spending bill until January, after the GOP takes narrow control of the House.
Meanwhile, federal agencies maintain contingency plans against a lapse in appropriations, such as a government shutdown, according to a White House report issued about a year ago. Those follow the Antideficiency Act and outlines what federal actions may cease and which "excepted" actions may continue.
For example, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s contingency plan, updated during its most recent biennial agency update in September of last year, states that the agency would take around half a day to cease non-excepted actions. At the plan's last update, EPA employed 14,283 workers, most of whom would be furloughed under the contingency plan. Workers not furloughed would include 80 whose "compensation is financed by a resource other than annual appropriations." Other employees not furloughed would be 254 deemed "necessary to perform activities expressly authorized by law," 219 employees "necessary to perform activities necessarily implied by law," two "necessary to the discharge of the president's constitutional duties and powers," and 409 "necessary to protect life and property." EPA activities that would cease would include issuing new grants and interagency agreements, processing payroll for non-exempted employees, updating the EPA website and conducting and publishing research.
