The U.S. House of Representatives today unanimously passed a continuing resolution (CR) to authorize five days of continued government funding past the current December 11, deadline. This stopgap measure is intended to buy more time for ongoing negotiations among lawmakers on a long-term, comprehensive omnibus spending bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2016. The Senate passed the measure on Thursday afternoon, and the CR will now head to the President’s desk for his signature. The White House has previously stated that Obama will sign the measure into law to avert a government shutdown – however, congressional leaders will still need to reach an agreement before the new December 16, deadline, or pass additional stopgap measures to keep the government open.
The CR is the latest in a series of temporary patches Congress has employed as it attempts to reach an agreement on a FY16 omnibus funding package, which will include appropriations levels for a variety of federal programs across policy areas (including the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill that directs Perkins funding levels). During this time, ACTE and its partners are continuing to call for a restoration of pre-sequestration funding levels for Perkins of $1.123 billion as a part of the larger omnibus bill. We encourage members to stay tuned to the CTE Policy Watch Blog for additional reports from the federal funding debate, and to contact their Members of Congress and urge them to build our national investment in CTE.
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