Senate votes 90-6 to push the shutdown fight past the midterms

Political Guyentist · August 9, 20263 min read

The stopgap funds agencies through Dec. 11, then senators left town for five weeks with the House still needing to vote.

The Senate approved the continuing resolution early Saturday by a bipartisan 90-6 vote, an 84-vote margin. The bill would fund the government through Dec. 11, moving the deadline 71 days beyond Oct. 1 and past the November midterms. Senators then left for a five-week recess. The House has not voted on the measure and will return in September.

Some numbers behind the new deadlineFiscal 1997 was the last time Congress finished all 12 appropriations bills before a fiscal year began.3 details

Fiscal 1997 was the last time Congress finished all 12 appropriations bills before a fiscal year began. Every year since has needed a stopgap.
Dec. 11 lands 38 days after Election Day, inside the lame-duck session — members who just lost their seats still get a vote on it.
All 435 House seats and roughly a third of the Senate are on the ballot Nov. 3.

What we’re less sure of2 of 8 claims

Medium
The bill now sits with the House, which has not voted on it and does not return until September.
The House's failure to vote is directly stated, but the September return date rests on a single outlet's characterization of the recess calendar.
Medium
The federal government spends about $7 trillion a year, but a stopgap covers only the roughly $1.8 trillion Congress appropriates; Social Security and Medicare payments continue during a shutdown.
Rounded totals broadly consistent with CBO outlay and discretionary-spending figures, but presented without attribution and sensitive to the fiscal year assumed.

Red take

A stopgap adds no money and takes none away: every agency stays frozen at last year's level through Dec. 11, so a program Congress voted to cut keeps spending at the old rate. And that date drops the twelve appropriations bills into a lame duck, where members voted out on Nov. 3 still cast deciding votes on the next year's spending.

Blue take

The House does not return until September and funding lapses at midnight Sept. 30, so the live choice was this bill or a second shutdown a year after the 43-day lapse. A 90-6 margin says neither party thought agency operations were the right leverage, and Dec. 11 leaves room to write the twelve bills without paychecks stopped.

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A federal ban on most hemp-derived THC products is set to be delayed by a month after senators voted to table the amendment that had held up the funding bill.

The report covers the Senate session that ended at 4:57 a.m. ET on Saturday, including passage of the funding bill.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to what the Senate did and didn’t do overnight The Senate wrapped up its summer session at 4:57 a.m. ET. Senators knocked two major items

Trump sought changes to a separate Senate Republican budget plan after the stopgap passed early Saturday.

Senate Republicans may have left Washington on a high note early Saturday morning, but their SAVE America budget push is on hold after Trump signaled he wants changes first.

Senate votes 90-6 to push the shutdown fight past the midterms

The stopgap funds agencies through Dec. 11, then senators left town for five weeks with the House still needing to vote.

What we’re less sure of2 of 8 claims

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