Senators have released the text of a stopgap spending bill that would keep the government funded at current levels through Dec. 11, which lawmakers hope to pass before funding runs out at the end of September.
The Senate plans to take up the bill this coming week before it leaves for a monthlong August recess, with the first procedural vote scheduled for Monday at 5:30 p.m. But even if the Senate passes the bill this week, the House is not set to return until Aug. 31, so this process won’t be over until September.
Both Republicans and Democrats lauded the bill’s release, with Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Susan Collins, R-Maine, calling the bill “straightforward.”
“This measure gives Congress the time we need to continue our work on bipartisan appropriations bills, which are always my strong preference for handling annual government funding,” Collins said in a statement, “I am grateful for the work of my colleagues; this CR is a major step toward averting a damaging shutdown that only harms vital programs and federal workers.”
Democrats say the stopgap measure would temporarily block a proposed Office of Management and Budget rule that would allow Trump officials to cancel grants for any reason, which they argue would politicize federal funding.
The Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member, Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Republicans prevented the proposed rule from being killed outright as a part of this bill. Murray said in a statement, “I’m going to keep fighting to put a stop to it once and for all, and I will keep pressing my Republican colleagues to do exactly that.”