Thursday: Averting a shutdown, Defense bill

The House plans to holds its last votes of the 113th Congress on Thursday.

A vote on the so-called “cromnibus” is coming down to the wire with the looming threat of a government shutdown at midnight. Lawmakers in both parties were split on whether to support the measure.

{mosads}In order to give the Senate more time to consider the cromnibus, the House will also pass a measure to extend current government funding for another two days.

The House will also vote on a bill under suspension of the rules to permanently extend tax credits for charitable giving.

The Senate starts at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday and will have a procedural vote at 10:30 a.m. to advance the House-passed defense spending bill.

The Senate needs to vote to end debate on concurring with the $585 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) because of some GOP senators object to the inclusion of an unrelated lands package.

The Senate will also have to pass at least a short-term continuing resolution in order to prevent the government from shutting down at midnight. 

The Senate will likely need a couple more days to get through the $1.1 trillion cromnibus, which funds most of the government through September 2015. As a protest to President Obama’s executive order on immigration reform, Republicans would only agree to fund the Department of Homeland Security through February.