On Thursday, the Senate passed H.R. 4378, the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2020, and Health Extenders Act of 2019, by a vote of 82 – 15. This bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), extends government funding at the current Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 levels, with several exceptions, until November 21, 2019. Congress regularly uses CR’s to fund the federal government for a limited amount of time to avoid a government shutdown and give lawmakers more time to enact the appropriation bills that are necessary to fund the federal government for the full fiscal year.
This specific measure not only extends funding, but also temporarily reauthorizes several programs that were scheduled to expire at the end of FY2019. These programs include the National Flood Insurance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and the Export-Import Bank of the United States, among others. Further, the bill includes a provision that allows the Department of Agriculture to continue making payments to farmers that have been affected by the tariffs in the on-going trade situation with China.
The White House has signaled its support for the legislation and the President intends to sign it into law.
Moving Forward
This resolution now gives the House and Senate an additional seven weeks to reach an agreement on spending for the 12 appropriations bills for FY2020 before facing a government shutdown. As of September 25, the House has passed 10 appropriation bills, including the Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education bill, but the Senate has yet to pass any, so there is still significant work to do. Once each perspective chamber passes its funding bills, they will “go to conference.” That is when a temporary committee is formed, made up of members from both the House and Senate, to work out the differences between the two versions of each bill. Then, the bills go back to each chamber to be voted upon, before going to the President to be signed into law.
In terms of Perkins funding, the House-passed Labor, HHS and Education bill would provide an additional $47 million to Perkins Basic State Grants, bringing the total to $1.31 billion. In the Senate, Labor, HHS and Education Subcommittee Chairman Roy Blunt (R-MO) introduced a bill that would level fund Perkins Basic State Grants at FY2019 levels, or $1.263 billion. There is still time for the funding levels to change as the process unfolds. We urge you to contact your Senators and ask them to increase Perkins funding in FY20 to at least match the House totals.
You story above states the CR is until November 21, 2019. Isn't it in reality "through" November 21, 2019?
Posted by: R F | 11/20/2019 at 07:37 AM