Congress considering continuing resolution to avoid government shutdown

Less than a month remains in the federal government’s fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. Now that Congress is back in session, members need to act quickly to pass a continuing resolution and avoid a government shutdown.

“But with one month until the end of the fiscal year, it’s clear that Congress will first need to pass a short-term continuing resolution (CR) to keep the federal government running and provide the time needed to reach an agreement on full-year funding bills,” The White House said in a release of funding proposals.

A continuing resolution is an agreement to keep funding going at its current level for a set period of time. The White House is proposing these emergency additions:

• $11.7 billion in economic and security assistance for Ukraine, 
• $22.4 billion for COVID-19, including testing and research for the next round of vaccines,   
• $3.9 billion for the monkeypox response, 
• funding for natural disaster relief.

Multiple Democratic senators said they believe Ukraine aid will get enough support to pass. But before Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, gives his approval, he has some questions.

“First, I want to know what happened to the Ukraine aid that we already voted for,” Sen. Kennedy said. 

Kennedy was also skeptical of attempts to add too many provisions into a continuing resolution.

“I think that coupling those issues is a cynical attempt to divide people in the Congress,” Kennedy said.

Senior Democratic leadership is also considering adding a provision in the continuing resolution to codify same-sex marriage into federal law. A bill to legalize same-sex marriage at the federal level already passed the House on a bipartisan basis.

“Clarence Thomas put this on the table. This is not an imagination. The fact is he said that this was an issue the court was going to consider again in the future,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois. said. “We take that statement very seriously from a Justice on the highest court in America.” 

Regardless, Sen. Durbin said the goal is to vote on a same-sex marriage bill before the midterm elections.