McConnell says Congress ‘obviously’ must pass short-term spending stopgap 

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) acknowledged Tuesday that Congress will “obviously” have to pass another short-term funding measure to avoid a partial government shutdown later this month, even though Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said last year he was “done” with short-term continuing resolutions (CR).

“Obviously we’re going to have to pass a CR,” McConnell told reporters about the path to extending government funding beyond the Jan. 19 and Feb. 2 deadlines.  

McConnell articulated what has becoming increasingly obvious to lawmakers in both parties: The chances they’ll wrap up work on the 12 regular government funding bills for fiscal 2024 in the next few weeks is extremely slim, even though congressional leaders have reached a deal on the top-line spending caps.

Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2-ranking member of the Senate GOP leadership, confirmed Tuesday it’s “highly likely … that we’re going to have to do some sort of CR to continue funding government for the foreseeable future.”

“We’re not going to get all the appropriations bills done by the coming deadline,” Thune conceded.

“What that looks like next week and where it originates, House or Senate, remains to be seen,” he added.

Funding for military construction and the departments of Veterans Affairs; Agriculture; Energy; Transportation; and Housing and Urban Development is due to expire Jan. 19.  

Funding for other federal departments, including the departments of Defense; Homeland Security; Labor; and Health and Human Services will expire Feb. 2.  

Thune said “we’re going to keep the government open” and observed that in order to avoid a partial shutdown, passing some sort of stop-gap funding measure is an “inevitability.”  

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That’s not good news for Johnson, who declared less than a month after becoming Speaker, that he didn’t want to pass any more short-term funding bills.  

“I’m done with short-term CRs,” Johnson declared in November.  

Asked if Johnson made a “mistake” by declaring he was finished with passing short-term funding gaps, given the need to avoid shutdowns, Thune declined to criticize the Speaker. 

“I try not to referee too much or, I guess, engage too much on the House. They got their way of doing things and their own challenges in moving legislation,” he said.