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THE
TAKE
Congress has until Nov. 17 to agree on funding to avert a
partial government shutdown. The Senate and House of
Representatives are taking sharply different approaches. The
Democratic-controlled Senate is working on bipartisan bills
while the Republican-controlled House is aiming for measures
that will pass with only votes from the majority.
Ultimately the two chambers and parties will have to agree on a
common approach that Democratic President Joe Biden will sign
into law. With time short, lawmakers from both parties agree it
is likely they will need to pass a stopgap measure known as a
"continuing resolution."
KEY QUOTE
"The only way things get done in divided government is
bipartisanship," Schumer said after the vote. "The American
people won't support the futile exercise of passing partisan,
extremist legislation that has no chance of becoming law, which
is what the House is doing right now."
BY THE NUMBERS
Congress must pass 12 appropriations bills to fund the
government through its fiscal year.
So far, the House has passed one appropriations bill, which due
to its policy changes and spending cuts has no chance of passing
the Senate or being signed into law by Biden.
The Senate's three bills passed on Wednesday with strong
bipartisan support, by a margin of 82-15.
THE CONTEXT
Congress narrowly averted a shutdown last month after the House
passed a bipartisan continuing resolution that led a small group
of hardline Republicans to oust then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
McCarthy's successor, Republican Speaker Mike Johnson, is aiming
to pass three 2024 spending bills with sharp spending cuts this
week to placate party hardliners before turning to a CR, which
he has said would extend through mid-January or mid-April.
The U.S. budget deficit last year hit $1.7 trillion, its highest
outside of the COVID crisis, as rising interest rates pushed
borrowing costs higher.
(Reporting by Moira Warburton; Editing by Scott Malone, Rod
Nickel and Bill Berkrot)
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