House passes stopgap funding, debt ceiling suspension bill
Source: Roll Call
The House passed a catchall budget package Tuesday that’s intended to avoid a partial government shutdown and debt limit crisis, but it seems likely to come back for a do-over once the Senate works its will. The stopgap funding bill, which passed on a 220-211 party-line vote, would extend federal agency budget authority through Dec. 3 and provide nearly $35 billion in aid to disaster victims and relocation assistance Afghan refugees who helped the U.S. government during two decades of war.The package advanced after a few hours of drama earlier in the day over an initial decision to grant Israel's $1 billion request for missile defense funds.
Progressive Democrats opposed to Israel's military response to rocket attacks launched by Palestinian groups from the Gaza Strip in May forced party leaders to strip the money. GOP lawmakers backed the Israeli defense funds, as well as much of the underlying package that remained intact. But they rebuked Democrats for adding language that would suspend the statutory debt limit through Dec. 16, 2022, or beyond the midterm elections."This one decision could force us into an unnecessary and costly government shutdown, and other critical programs in this bill could be left behind," House Appropriations Committee ranking member Kay Granger, R-Texas, told the Rules Committee on Tuesday.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has argued for months that despite years of bipartisan negotiations on the debt limit, Democrats should go at it alone this year since they are using the partisan budget reconciliation process to enact their fiscal priorities without GOP input.Republican leaders used the same fast-track process to get around the Senate’s 60-vote legislative filibuster for their 2017 tax bill and unsuccessfully tried to use it to repeal and replace the 2010 health care law when they were in the majority. Moody’s Analytics on Tuesday warned Congress against exacerbating uncertainty on a debt limit suspension, saying that if a bill isn’t enacted before the Treasury Department runs out of cash and borrowing room “the resulting chaos in global financial markets will be difficult to bear.”
“The U.S. and global economies, which still have a long way to go to recover from the recession caused by the pandemic, will descend back into recession,” Moody's Chief Economist Mark Zandi and Assistant Director Bernard Yaros wrote. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer acknowledged earlier in the day that the Senate could make changes and send the package back to the House. The procedural hurdles along the way could put final passage pretty close to the deadline; without a presidential signature on the continuing resolution, starting Oct. 1 the federal government would begin a partial shutdown. Dozens of agencies would have to furlough workers and require others to work without pay.
Read more: https://www.rollcall.com/2021/09/21/continuing-resolution-stopgap-bill-text/
Here's the WaPo version -
The United States is careening toward an urgent financial crisis starting in less than two weeks, as a political standoff on Capitol Hill threatens to shutter the government during a pandemic, delay hurricane aid to millions of Americans and thrust Washington to the precipice of defaulting on its debt. The high-stakes feud stems from a fight to raise the U.S. government’s borrowing limit, known as the debt ceiling. Democrats have tied the increase to a bill that funds federal operations into early December, setting off a war with Republicans, who refuse to raise the cap out of opposition to President Biden’s broader agenda — even if it means grinding the country to a halt.
No recent fight in the halls of Congress has quite carried the same stakes as this one, coming at a time when Washington continues to grapple with rising coronavirus infections and the deadly consequences of a fast-warming planet. Biden himself has warned about the “catastrophic” effects of inaction with key deadlines looming. With the clock ticking, the House took the first steps Tuesday to stave off the political and economic crisis, as Democrats voted to keep the government operational and suspend the debt ceiling into December 2022. But the proposal has no chance in the Senate, where Republicans have pledged to vote against it, threatening to leave Congress with little time to resolve a set of disputes that could destabilize global markets.
“We cannot shut down the government, that would be catastrophic in its own right,” warned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) in a speech before the vote. “We cannot ignore and not support the full faith and credit of the United States of America.”The first deadline arrives Sept. 30, at which point Congress must strike a deal to fund the government or critical federal services could cease Oct. 1. Millions of federal employees could see interruptions to their pay. Federal agencies that perform critical tasks in homeland security, law enforcement and housing could stop paying workers indefinitely. National parks and monuments also may close.
The implications of a shutdown on the government’s response to the pandemic are less clear, as there is little precedent for a sudden halt in government functions during a public health crisis. The U.S. government plays a leading role in monitoring the virus’s spread and coordinating vaccines and testing, all the while distributing billions of dollars in housing relief and other aid programs — working through agencies that are traditionally severely affected during a shutdown.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/09/21/congress-shutdown-debt-ceiling/
This fixation on "National Parks" continues to be idiotic.
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