Congress aims to punt agency funding to March, but hurdles remain ahead of shutdown deadline

Updated Dec. 17 at 7:50 p.m.

Congressional leaders labored this week to put forward a stopgap funding bill that would avert a shutdown Friday evening, with negotiators finally breaking through Tuesday evening after an extended struggle to finalize a slew of additional funding and policy provisions that will be attached to the measure. 

The bill is set to keep agencies funded at their current levels through March 14, staving off a shutdown just before the holiday season. Lawmakers are opting to once again punt on full-year government funding, delaying those bills to set line-by-line spending levels across government until President Trump takes office and a new, Republican-controlled Congress is sworn in. 

The bill is set to also include $100 billion in disaster aid following the devastating impacts of hurricanes Helene and Milton, as well as other disasters, earlier this year. Lawmakers have also fought over an extension of the Farm Bill and additional funding to support farmers across the country, ultimately opting to include $10 billion in assistance. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and others had hoped to release the text of the continuing resolution and its add-ons over the weekend, but that process was delayed as negotiations carried on. The more than 1,500-page bill was not released until Tuesday evening, offering a tight timeline for the House to vote on the measure and send it to the Senate for final approval before Friday’s deadline. 

Republican lawmakers across the ideological spectrum voiced their displeasure with the measure, saying the package included too many extraneous provisions and was rushed at the last minute by a small group in leadership. The bill, once unveiled, will likely require most Democrats to join with some Republicans for it to pass the House. 

The Biden administration has warned that without boosts to funding in certain areas, a CR would force several agencies to cease hiring ahead of President-elect Trump’s inauguration. The Internal Revenue Service, Federal Aviation Administration, Veterans Affairs Department, Social Security Administration and Executive Office of Immigration Review have all suggested they will implement, or continue existing, hiring freezes without additional funding attached to the stopgap bill. The bill contained a provision to allow FAA to continue hiring and operating normally, though it did not appear to address the other shortfalls. 

Johnson said he hoped to preserve a rule to allow lawmakers 72 hours to examine a bill before it is voted upon—which would mean the House would not send the bill to the Senate until Friday afternoon—though he left open the possibility of violating it. Such a timeline would require all 100 senators to sign off on expedited consideration to avoid a shutdown. 

Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., made clear this week he wanted to stave off any hurdles. 

“Shutting the government down is a one-way ticket to needless destruction of important functions,” McConnell said. “It's never been a winning proposition, and this time is no different.”

Despite pushback in his party, Johnson said he attempted to get everyone on board with his funding plan. 

“We worked really hard to achieve consensus on a bill that responsibly funds the government into March of next year,” Johnson said on Tuesday. He repeatedly stated throughout Monday and Tuesday that the release of the bill was imminent. 

He added that congressional appropriations are already engaging in talks to lay out full-year funding bills and said he hopes to complete those well before the new mid-March deadline. 

Under a bipartisan, two-year budget deal that President Biden negotiated last year with congressional Republicans, non-defense agencies are slated for a modest 1% boost in fiscal 2025. Appropriators have yet to agree to a top-line funding level despite that agreement, however, and Trump’s election and promise to slash funding could upend it.

Senate Democrats, who will lose their majority in January, had hoped after the election focus would turn to approving full-year appropriations bills. The House has passed five of the 12 required annual spending bills, though it has done so in party-line votes and at spending levels below what Republicans and the White House previously agreed to as part of the two-year budget deal. The Senate has passed 11 of its 12 bills using higher funding totals in overwhelmingly bipartisan votes at the committee level, though none have been approved on the floor.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., reminded Republicans on Tuesday they will have to work in a bipartisan fashion to finalize spending bills next year. 

“House Republicans will have fewer seats than they do this year, and Senate Republicans will not have 60 members,” Murray said. “Democrats will continue fighting for the investments that matter to families and working people everywhere in this country—on everything from child care to affordable health care to clean drinking water and so much more.”

This story has been updated with details on the CR text.