Returning from Rosh Hashana observations, late Tuesday night, the Senate voted to advance a 10-week stopgap funding bill to fund the government with a continuing resolution (CR) through Dec. 16, 2022.
In addition to providing federal solvency (at least on paper) and keeping the government open beyond this weekend, the text includes provisions $12.4 billion in aid to Ukraine – nearly $1 billion more than requested by the President.
Lawmakers have until Friday night to pass the stopgap legislation, but, with a last-minute request to strike energy-permitting provisions initially insisted upon by West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin (D) from the CR text, the upper chamber secured the 60 votes needed to overcome a procedural hurdle to advance the bill.
Republicans say their position of the proposal is stronger with a bill “that is as clean as possible” – meaning without the Manchin provisions. Top Senate GOP appropriator Richard Shelby (Ala.) said he would oppose forms of the stopgap package with the energy-permitting provisions attached.
Biden’s requests for $22.4 billion to COVID resources and $4.5 billion to respond to monkeypox cases were not addressed in the legislation poised for a vote this evening, and, while Democrats claim the bill as a great reflection of bipartisanship, its final terms remain largely uncertain.
Delays from infighting over special interests for a pipeline project in West Virginia in the Senate aside, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she is prepared to have the House move quickly on the stopgap bill:
“We are prepared to take it up,” Pelosi said in a press conference last week. “We have same-day authority already built in, so we don’t have to delay it in any way for procedural purposes.”
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