Both chambers of Congress are now in recess. Congress is scheduled to return after the elections in November to address a number of unresolved issues, including passing the remaining seven FY2019 appropriations bills.
News and updates
He Did Sign It
Questions about whether he would actually shut down parts of the federal government were finally answered as President Trump signed on Friday the Labor-HHS-Education and Defense spending package that contained the continuing resolution that would keep the other parts of the government funded through December 7.
The new fiscal year, FY2019, starts today and there were doubts as to whether he would force a partial shutdown of the government because of the lack of additional funding for the border wall along the Southern border in the spending package. Funding for the wall will be one of the key issues that will need to be resolved when Congress returns to spending bills after the November elections.
No Deal on Spending Bills 6 – 9
The House and Senate appropriators negotiating on a four-bill spending package conceded yesterday that they will need to revisit the issue after the election. This means that the programs and agencies funded by those four bills– Interior, Agriculture, Transportation and Housing, and financial services– will need to remain on autopilot, assuming that the president signs the Defense/ Labor-HHS-Education package, which also contains a short-term continuing resolution, before Monday morning.
With the House scheduled to go into recess later today until after the November elections, the negotiators will need to resume their discussions after both chambers return to Washington.
With the new fiscal year scheduled to start on October 1, five of the 12 annual spending bills have been signed into law or are ready for the president’s signature.
But Will He Sign It?
Following the Senate’s lead from last week, the House cleared yesterday the massive spending package that combines the annual Labor-HHS-Education and Defense spending bills by a vote of 361-61. The Senate approved it by a vote of 93 to 7. The bill also includes a continuing resolution (CR) that would fund through December 7 the other agencies and programs whose funding bills are not signed into law by next Monday.
Earlier this week, there had been some uncertainty about whether the president would actually sign the package because it did not contain the funding his wants for a border wall along the Southern border. It now appears that he will indeed sign it.
The CR could now apply to a larger number of bills– seven– than originally hoped for. House and Senate negotiators have spent the last several weeks trying to reach a compromise on a combined package of four more appropriations measures and it remains uncertain at this point whether an agreement can be reached and signed into law before the House recesses on Friday. Among the bills under discussion are those that would fund the departments of Interior and Agriculture.
First “Minibus” Signed Into Law
As expected, President Trump signed into law earlier today the first “minibus” appropriations package for FY2019, a measure that combines the Energy and Water, Veterans Affairs-Military Construction, and Legislative Brach Appropriations Bills.
Congress and the White House must still agree on nine more bills for FY2019.