Senate Advances Yet Another Interim Funding Bill to Avert Shutdown

With the first quarter of fiscal year 2024 already in the rearview, Congress appears poised to kick the spending can even further down the road. In a 68–3 procedural vote on Jan. 16, the Senate advanced Congress’ third stopgap spending bill in four months to avert a partial government shutdown. Leaders of both congressional chambers and the White House reached an agreement on the interim measure—called a continuing resolution (CR)—and unveiled its text over the weekend. The bill would extend the deadlines for Congress to pass two sets of annual appropriations bills to March 1 and March 8. Due to the two-part “laddered” nature of the CR passed in November, current funding is set to expire on Jan. 19 and Feb. 2....