Posted originally on the CTH on January 18, 2024 | Sundance 

Yup, another kick-the-can continuing resolution spending bill has passed the House.  This extension lasts until March 1st and 8th.

The short-term CR negotiated in part by House Speaker Mike Johnson, passed the House on a 314-108 vote margin.  207 Democrats and 107 Republicans voted for it.  Yes, that’s correct; more democrats supported the CR than republicans, and this is with a republican house majority.

It’s a Democrat CR bill being brought up by a Republican House Speaker and passed by the UniParty.  Almost half of the Republicans voted against it (106), while just 2 Democrats voted no.  The DC UniParty in its full glory.

“Our Speaker, Mr. Johnson, said he was the most conservative speaker we’ve ever had, and yet here we are, putting this bill on the floor,” said. Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona in a floor speech ahead of the vote, adding that the situation is what “led to us to vacate Speaker McCarthy in the first place.”

WASHINGTON DC – On a 314-108 House vote, Congress just bought six more weeks to continue the fiscal 2024 funding fight. But even the new March government shutdown deadlines are going to be a challenge to meet.

STEP 1: ANOTHER NUMBERS DEAL — Top Hill leaders might have agreed on overall spending levels nearly two weeks ago, but appropriators can’t get to work writing legislation until the two appropriations chairs — Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) — work out their own deal on how to divvy up the topline number among the 12 individual bills, setting what’s known among wonks as the 302(b)s.

It’s been slow going, and other top appropriators are growing impatient. “I have no insights as to why it’s taking so long,” said Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine). “I’m very concerned.” As to whether there’s enough time for Congress to meet the split March 1/March 8 deadlines: “I think there is if we get the allocations promptly next week,” Collins said.

People familiar with the process have stressed that negotiating subcommittee allocations typically takes a while. Speaking before the Senate passed the latest stopgap earlier this afternoon, Murray said she’s “working nonstop” with her House counterparts to keep things “moving as quickly as we possibly can.”

STEP 2: ENTER THE SUBCOMMITTEES — Once the 302(b)s are set, the 12 appropriations subcommittee chairs and ranking members will start trading offers on how to distribute their allocations among each department, agency and program in their jurisdiction, while also haggling over potential policy stipulations.

For several of the bills, that’s going to be a challenge, considering the vast differences between the measures that the House and Senate each pumped out last year.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), chair of the State-Foreign Operations panel, told us that he and GOP counterpart Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) have a lot of daylight to close in negotiations with their peers across the Capitol. “Lindsey and I work well together,” he said. “But the gap between our bill in the Senate and the House is pretty significant. So once we have allocations, there’s still a lot of work to do.”

STEP 3: RIDER TIME — House conservatives, who’ve failed for months to secure steep spending cuts, say they’re hellbent on securing major policy wins, such as anti-abortion provisions and immigration restrictions that are dead on arrival for the Democratic-controlled Senate. They have backing from Johnson, who just last Sunday said the new funding patch will buy time to fight for “meaningful policy wins” while cajoling Republicans to support the latest stopgap.

As our Alice Miranda Ollstein and Meredith Lee Hill report today, House Freedom Caucus chair Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) said many in the House Republican conference will be “disappointed and upset” if the speaker doesn’t win on anti-abortion language, arguing that House Republicans “should get at least half of what we want.”

STEP 4: PASS IT OR BUST — If lawmakers fail to pass full-year appropriations bills over the next six weeks, senior appropriators are warning that will mean yet another continuing resolution — this time, through the rest of the fiscal year. They are counting on the threat of flat budgets and potentially devastating cuts to avert that outcome.

A continuing resolution through Sept. 30, for instance, would cut non-defense budgets by a total of $73 billion from current levels. Separately, lawmakers are facing another potential “sequester” scenario, thanks to a provision baked into the debt limit package passed last year. If the government is operating under any short-term CR come April 30, there will be a $10 billion cut to the military’s budget and a $41 billion cut to domestic programs. (MORE)

Madness…..

Complete and utter dysfunction.