The House reconvened on Wednesday as government funding for several agencies was set to expire today and we faced yet another potential government shutdown. There was still no agreement on government funding when I left for Washington.
On Wednesday afternoon, congressional leaders announced a that bipartisan deal had been reached to fund our government for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2024. In order to give the House and Senate time to write the legislation memorializing the deal reached (draft and prepare report language, allow the Congressional Budget Office time to score, and to deal with other technical matters), and proposed another short-term continuing resolution to fund various government agencies through March 8 and 22. That resolution, H.R. 7463, extends funding through March 8 for six appropriations bills, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies; Energy and Water Development; Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies; Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies; Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies; and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies. It extends funding through March 22 for the remaining six appropriations bills: Defense; Financial Services and General Government; Homeland Security; Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies; Legislative Branch; and State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs.
On Thursday, I voted for the short-term Continuing Resolution, which passed by a vote of 320-99. It was the right thing to do under the circumstances—but the circumstances are not right. Keeping our government funded and functioning is a fundamental responsibility of Congress. Congress has been at a standstill when it comes to passing government funding bills for this year, Fiscal Year 2024, which began on October 1, 2023. House leaders have been unable to pass, and in some cases even bring to the floor, the 12 annual appropriations bills that fund the government. You may remember that, in June of last year, President Biden and then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy negotiated an agreement that established spending levels for appropriations bills for Fiscal Year 2024 in exchange for lifting the debt ceiling. The resulting Fiscal Responsibility Act passed Congress on a bipartisan basis and was signed into law. Yet the few bills that have come to the House floor have not complied with that agreement, and many more have not even come to the floor.
Now that House and Senate leaders have reached another agreement on spending, we expect to be able to vote on the first set of appropriations bills next week and the second set in a few weeks.
While we were back, the House also voted to pass a few other bills under suspension of the rules, including the Airport and Airway Extension Act of 2024 (H.R. 7545), which extends the statutory authorities of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) through May 10, 2024, which passed by a vote of 401-19; the Native American Entrepreneurial Opportunity Act (H.R. 7102) to establish the Office of Native American Affairs within the Small Business Administration, which passed by a vote of 402-16; and the Atomic Energy Advancement Act (H.R. 6544) to streamline licensing and reduce fees for nuclear energy deployment. The Atomic Energy Advancement Act is the biggest reform of nuclear power regulations in a generation and takes common sense steps to drive nuclear innovation, especially with micro-reactors, new compact reactors that can be transported by truck, rail or air. The bill also contains provisions to develop a domestic enriched uranium supply chain to fuel our nuclear plants so that we do not have to rely on Russian uranium imports. I voted in favor of all of these bills, each of which passed on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis.
As a reminder, you can always find a list of all of the votes I have taken for the district on my website.
