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Congress Passes Another Continuing Resolution to Avert Government Shutdown, Biden Signs Into Law

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  January 18, 2024 5:45 PM

Update: On Friday, President Joe Biden signed the bill to fund the government with deadlines for March 1 and March 8. 

On Thursday, both the Democratic-controlled Senate and the Republican-controlled House voted on yet another continuing resolution (CR), with this one including deadlines for March 1 and March 8. The CR passed the Senate earlier, and then went onto the House, where it had the necessary two-thirds votes to pass even with voting for members still open. The bill's passage, which heads to President Joe Biden to sign, comes just one day before a partial government shutdown would have taken place. It's also the third CR that Congress has passed for fiscal year 2024. 

The Senate had voted 77-18 earlier, while the House voted 314-108. As Fox News' Chad Pergram laid out, the majority of Republicans voting for the CR was particularly narrow, with 107 of their members voting in favor and 106 against. 

Reporting from The Hill had details on the process and the drama:

[Speaker Mike] Johnson [R-LA] last week rejected calls from conservatives to renege on the bipartisan topline spending deal he had backed days before, and he brushed aside a suggestion from the right flank to put a long-term continuing resolution on the floor, which would have triggered a one percent across-the-board cut mechanism that was included in the debt limit deal McCarthy struck with Biden last year.

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Thursday’s passage did not come without some last-minute drama.

First, House Republican leadership announced that the chamber would vote on the two-step stopgap bill Thursday afternoon, rather than Friday morning, rushing to the floor as Washington prepares for a Friday snowfall. The Senate approved the legislation early Thursday afternoon, after leaders locked in a time agreement Wednesday night.

Then, Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, and Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), a member of the conservative group, huddled with Johnson and pitched him on adding an amendment vote on border and migration policy as part of the government funding process. Good said Johnson was “considering it.”

The Speaker, however, rejected the plea — which would have thrown a wrench in the planned process to avert a shutdown — dealing another blow to conservatives who have urged Johnson to embrace their hard-line tactics during the government funding process, to no avail.

“What we’re trying to do is do what’s best for the country, which is to reduce our spending, secure our borders,” Good told The Hill after Johnson’s spokesperson said the plan for funding the government had not changed. “We’re trying to help him and be a partner with him in doing that.”

“Unfortunately, to this point, decisions have been made to form a coalition with Democrats on the material legislation that matters to the country,” he added.

Asked if there would be any consequences for Johnson, Good responded: “We’ll see.”

While a chunk of conservatives opposed the CR on Thursday, the two-step framework is one they championed in the previous CR.

Members of the right-flank viewed the unconventional configuration as a way to avoid a massive end-of-year, whole-of-government omnibus bill.

Under the new measure, lawmakers agreed to extend funding for four of the 12 annual spending bills through March 1, staving off a funding lapse for the Departments of Agriculture, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Energy, the Food and Drug Administration and other agencies.

The bill also kicks a Feb. 2 deadline for the remaining government agencies — like the Departments of Defense (DOD), Labor, Education and Health and Human Services — to March 8. 

More Democrats voted in favor of the bill than Republicans did, which has been the case for previous CRs, as well as when the House voted to raise the debt ceiling last year. Republicans opposed, especially those in the House Freedom Caucus (HFC), have been sounding the alarm on securing the southern border and fixing the crisis that is taking place there. 

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History looks to be potentially repeating itself in other ways, though. 

Last October, eight Republicans joined with all Democratic House members to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) filed a motion to vacate the chair after the House passed a clean spending bill to avert a government. shutdown at the last minute last September. After weeks without a speaker, and several nominees, now Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was voted in by all of his Republican colleagues. As a divided Congress continues to face spending battles, members are once again bringing up the idea of filing a motion to vacate the chair, and this includes members who were opposed to the idea the last time.

Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Chip Roy (R-TX) have addressed the idea of vacating the chair. Roy has discussed such an idea in both interviews with CNN and Fox News. 

Another member who has mentioned such an idea is Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ), one of the eight who voted to oust McCarthy. It's also noteworthy that Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), one of the eight who voted to oust McCarty, told The Hill in the excerpt above that "we'll see" if Johnson will face consequences. 

Johnson spoke to CNN last week, with Manu Raju asking the speaker "are you worried that one of these guys is going to make a move on you?" It does not appear that the speaker has such concerns, though.

"No, I'm not worried about that at all. I just met with all those guys. They're close friends of mine. We agree on the principles. I'm a life-long hard-core conservative. I want to get as many policy wins as we can, but the reality is we have a small majority, so in a situation like that, you're not going to get everything you want. You get what you can get. And we have been trying to negotiate to make that happen and we're going to continue and keep the team together. Just another day at the office," Johnson said in response.

There was visible discontent being shared over X on Thursday, both before and after the vote took place, with trends such as "No CR," "Speaker Johnson," and even "Motion to Vacate" gaining traction.