Congress has locked in plans to leave town Wednesday, as lawmakers move to quickly fund the government and then get out of town for six weeks of campaigning.
The House and Senate are both poised to pass a short-term funding bill that will fund federal agencies through Dec. 20 and avert a government shutdown next week.
The House: The chamber will vote Wednesday evening on the stopgap funding bill. It will come up under an expedited process that requires two-thirds of the House to vote in favor for passage, but it is expected to clear that hurdle with ease.
The question is not if it will pass, but how many defections emerge within the House GOP conference among those frustrated by Speaker Mike Johnson relying on Democratic votes to fund the government.
The Senate: Earlier this week, weekend work was on the table. But that has been set aside: The Senate is set to move swiftly Wednesday night on the spending measure after House passage. On Tuesday night, the upper chamber locked in a time agreement to expedite debate time and speed towards a final vote. Once they receive the House-passed bill, the Senate will debate for up to two hours and then vote.
“I appreciate the work of all the leaders to move forward with this CR. This is how things should be done. Without brinkmanship, without delay,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said after the announcement of the time agreement.
Post-passage, lawmakers in both chambers will be headed to the airport and won’t be back in Washington until after the November election.
In December, they’ll go through the process again. With election outcomes and party control of each chamber in the next Congress decided, lawmakers will hash out new funding levels for the rest of the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.
“I hope — I truly hope — we will continue to see this same bipartisanship in the Senate when we return and we work to fund the government,” Schumer said.
