October 3, 2023
On Saturday, September 30, 2023, after weeks of seemingly unproductive efforts, and with just hours to spare, both houses of Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed into law a Continuing Resolution (CR). This temporary funding measure will fund the federal government through November 17, 2023, largely at the same levels as FY2023 funding, providing lawmakers six extra weeks to pass a long-term funding resolution.
The breakthrough came on Saturday when Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced a stopgap funding proposal that did not include sweeping budget cuts or strict border provisions that Republican members of the chamber had been seeking. The funding resolution, however, did drop funding for aid to Ukraine, a White House priority opposed by a number of Republican lawmakers.
The House voted largely in bipartisan support of the legislation, with 335 Representatives voting in favor, and 91 voting in opposition. The Senate quickly voted 88 in favor and nine opposed to pass the CR, and it was signed into law shortly after by President Biden, narrowly avoiding the midnight, September 30, 2023 deadline before a government shutdown would have been triggered.
While the resolution was stripped of funding for Ukraine, it did include increases to federal disaster assistance by $16 billion.
Speaker McCarthy was quoted on apnews.com having said on Saturday, "We're going to do our job . . . We're going to be adults in the room. And we're going to keep government open." Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was also quoted, having said, "It has been a day full of twists and turns, but the American people can breathe a sigh of relief: There will be no government shutdown."
As shared by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, the funding resolution included extensions for the National Health Service Corps, community health centers, and the Teaching Health Center Graduation Medical Education - time-limited public health programs whose funding was set to expire on September 30, 2023.
Click here to read more on this story, and click here to access the funding resolution itself.
