Senate Averts a Shutdown With Another Can Kicked to December

The Senate passed a continuing resolution 90-6 on Saturday, extending federal government funding through Dec. 11 and averting a shutdown ahead of the fall. The stopgap gives lawmakers roughly ten additional weeks to negotiate full-year fiscal 2027 appropriations bills and extends funding for surface transportation programs along with economic pacts covering sub-Saharan Africa and Haiti [1, 2]. A late fight over a provision delaying a November 12 ban on THC-infused hemp products nearly derailed the bill; Sens. Ted Budd and Pete Ricketts demanded an amendment to strip the delay, but the Senate tabled it 61-32 [1]. Senate Democrats separately blocked a White House rule that would have required senior political-appointee approval for federal grants and prevented new Border Patrol funding transfers [1, 2]. The measure now heads to the House, which is expected to take it up in early September [1].

Why It Sucks:

Fiscal Conservatives

• Another can-kick, no cuts attached. Fiscal hawks say a clean CR that funds the government through December without addressing the deficit just delays the reckoning past the midterms rather than forcing Congress to actually govern [1].
• Battleship money stripped, priorities skipped. Conservatives who wanted the $1 billion “Trump-class” battleship request funded say leadership caved on a defense priority to get a quick bipartisan deal [1].
• THC delay slipped through anyway. Budd and Ricketts’s failed push to strip the hemp-ban delay shows leadership prioritized speed over policy fights conservatives consider urgent [1].

Progressive Democrats

• Ten more weeks, same fights ahead. Progressives like Sanders, Warren and Markey, who voted no, argue a short-term patch just sets up another cliff instead of using leverage now to secure priorities like ACA subsidy extensions [1, 2].
• Border Patrol funding fight isn’t over. Democrats say they had to spend political capital just to stop a funding transfer to Border Patrol, a defensive posture that shows how little room they have to shape the bill’s substance [1].
• Political-appointee grant rule will return. Progressives warn the administration will keep trying to insert political control over how federal grants are approved, and blocking it once in a stopgap doesn’t settle the underlying fight [1].

Federal Agencies and Career Workers

• Ten weeks of certainty, then back to the cliff. Agency planners get short-term relief from a shutdown but still can’t do multi-year budgeting or hiring under yet another temporary patch [1, 2].
• Shipbuilders and contractors left guessing. Navy shipbuilding got a funding acceleration, but the exclusion of the battleship request leaves contractors unsure which programs will survive the next appropriations round [1].
• Government by recurring emergency wears on. Career staff across agencies now face their latest of many short-term funding deadlines in as many years, complicating long-term projects and retention [1, 2].

Sources & Citations:

[1] Spokesman-Review: Funding patch passes Senate to head off fall shutdown
[2] WUSF/NPR: Late-summer recess begins after Senate rushes through final votes