WASHINGTON, DC – Ahead of a September 30 deadline, Congress today approved a stopgap spending measure known as a continuing resolution (CR) that will keep the government funded through December 20. 

After weeks of foot dragging by House Republican leaders, members of the House and Senate agreed to and passed a clean, three-month CR.

U.S. Senator Jack Reed, a member of the Appropriations Committee, stated: “The American people deserve a functioning government that works for them and is responsive to their needs.  The bipartisan agreement is a rebuke of hardliners and Donald Trump, who urged a government shutdown because they thought the resulting chaos and dysfunction would help his campaign.  The simple fact is a shutdown would have needlessly harmed U.S. interests, tax payers, and working Americans nationwide and made America less safe.  So averting a manufactured crisis with a clean CR is a better outcome.  Still, we need to get back to regular order and passing bipartisan bills.”

The 49-page CR largely extends current spending levels and policy until December 20, giving the House and Senate additional time to come together after the upcoming November elections to hammer out the final details of the dozen full-year appropriations bills.

President Biden signaled his support for the stopgap CR, releasing a Statement of Administration Policy calling “for swift passage of this bill in both chambers of the Congress to avoid a costly, unnecessary Government shutdown and to ensure there is adequate time to pass full-year FY 2025 appropriations bills later this year.”

The bill was first passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and then the full U.S. Senate voted 78-18 to approve it.  The measure now goes to President Biden’s desk to be signed into law.