House Passes Continuing Resolution to Fund Government Through December 3 – Stalemate Awaits in Senate
October 18, 2021
September 23, 2021
Fiscal year (FY) 2021 ends in 7 days and Congress is having trouble agreeing on how to extend government funding while it continues to work on full-year FY 2022 appropriations bills. On Tuesday, Sept. 21, on a party-line vote, Democrats in the House passed a continuing resolution (CR) to extend current funding levels until December 3. The bill also includes emergency funding for disaster relief and resettlement assistance for displaced Afghans and, most notably, suspends the debt ceiling until December 2022.
As a reminder, if Congress does not increase or suspend the debt ceiling in the next month, the U.S. will no longer be able to borrow and will begin to default on its obligations, with catastrophic economic repercussions.
In the Senate, the House CR requires 60 votes to pass and Republicans have vowed not to support an increase in or suspension of the debt ceiling, making the bill unlikely to gain approval. On Wednesday, Senate Republicans released their own CR, which does not address the debt ceiling and contains foreign aid funding that progressive Democrats oppose. How this faceoff will end is uncertain, but no one wants a government shutdown on October 1.
