Tipsheet

Congress Heads Home for Long Weekend Without a Deal to Avoid Shutdown

Spencer Brown
Spencer Brown  |  September 21, 2023 4:00 PM

Most members of the U.S. House and Senate packed up their bags and set out for home on Thursday afternoon — not to return until Tuesday following the conclusion of Yom Kippur on Monday evening — without any resolution as to how lawmakers will fund the federal government to avoid a shutdown after funding expires on September 30.

In the Senate, the final vote came and went without members of the upper chamber resolving disputes over spending bills to fund the government but most eyes remain on the House and what its Republican majority will do amid an apparent inability to advance funding bills.

In an emailed announcement, House GOP Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) made the lower chamber's recess official on Thursday afternoon but warned that "[d]iscussions related to FY24 appropriations are ongoing and the Committee on Rules remains on call throughout the weekend."

"Members are advised that ample notice will be given ahead of any potential votes tomorrow or this weekend," Emmer's message added hopefully of the chance a deal could be struck and votes called to move the funding process forward.  

One major obstacle for House GOP leadership has been its inability to keep the conference in line for rules votes to pass and allow funding bills to go to the floor, failing on two attempts to pass rules for consideration of the defense spending bill while a planned vote on the rule for a continuing resolution was pulled earlier.  

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According to Hill watchers, the rules vote snags are not a normal thing.

But Speaker McCarthy and his leadership team continue to talk and work with members of their conference in search of a solution. 

According to reporting from Punchbowl News on Thursday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) met with McCarthy and proposed votes on individual appropriations bills when lawmakers return on Tuesday — with just five days before the shutdown deadline — starting with the bills that cut spending in a bid to build some momentum and put the failed rules votes behind them.