Short-term government funding bill introduced

House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) on Monday introduced a short-term bill that would allow the government to remain funded through early March and temporarily stave off a government shutdown.

“Our country needs a government funding agreement to create good-paying jobs, grow opportunity for the middle class, and protect our national security. We are close to reaching a framework government funding agreement, but we will need additional time to complete the legislation in full,” DeLauro said in a statement introducing the continuing resolution.

“This Continuing Resolution – the product of bipartisan, bicameral negotiation – extends funding through March 11 to keep government up and running while Congress completes our important work,” she added.

The legislation comes as top negotiators on Capitol Hill have struggled for months to reach a bipartisan agreement on government funding for fiscal 2022, which began at the start of October.

The House is expected to act swiftly on the bill as the chamber is scheduled for recess the following week. Multiple members are also set to travel abroad for research trips during the same period.

If passed, the legislation would buy more time for negotiators on both sides of the aisle to wrap up spending talks and strike a larger deal to fund the government through the remainder of the fiscal year, which will end in late September.

So far, Congress has passed two continuing resolutions, which allow the government to remain funded at the previous year’s spending levels for the current fiscal year to prevent a shutdown.

If the legislation introduced on Monday is passed in the House and Senate, it would mark the third time Congress has had to approve a stopgap bill in the absence of a larger bipartisan agreement on government funding.

Under the last continuing resolution, passed in early December, the government was set to remain funded until Feb. 18 to provide more cushion to lawmakers to strike a deal.

But leaders signaled last week that Congress was headed for another continuing resolution as disagreements remain on several issues, including defense and nondefense spending, and legislative riders like the Hyde Amendment, a decades-old amendment barring Medicaid from being used to cover abortions.

–Updated at 2:51 p.m.