The deadline to pass a continuing resolution (CR) is Friday, September 30. The House is out of session today and Tuesday, while the Senate is out today. However, the Senate is expected to proceed with a cloture vote on the CR on Tuesday evening. Final text for the CR has not yet been released. The CR is expected to include funding for Ukraine aid, disaster relief funding, reauthorizing the user fee agreements, Afghan refugee funding, and a temporary extension of certain rural hospital payments. The funding for the government will likely go to December 16. Congress will then use Lame Duck to pass an omnibus spending package to fund the government for the remainder of FY 2023. As that will be the final bill passed for the 117th Congress, many key policy priorities will be in the mix to get attached to that package.
The item that continues to be an issue for the CR is an energy permitting proposal from Senator Manchin (D-WV). To secure Manchin’s vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY) committed to considering a Manchin proposal that would change environmental permitting language, modify the Clean Water Act and approve a gas pipeline from West Virginia to Virginia. Progressive Democrats in the House and the Senate, and also many Republicans who prefer a proposal from their colleague Senator Capito (R-WV), are opposed to Manchin’s provision. If the CR cloture vote does not get 60 votes with the Manchin provision, Majority Leader Schumer will pull the Manchin provision and bring the CR back up for a vote, or the House will vote on the CR first—without the Manchin provision—and send it back to the Senate for its consideration. Stay tuned for further developments.
