Government Funding Beyond November 17th…

With the current continuing resolution (CR) expiring on November 17th, there will need to be another funding extension to avoid a government shutdown. Speaker Johnson said he was prepared to back a CR through January 15th to allow enough time to complete full-year bills and avoid the specter of another omnibus measure just before Christmas. The length of a CR could become a sticking point. While Johnson wants to push it into 2024, Senate Democrats appeared to favor a shorter-term bill with hopes of wrapping up final appropriations before Christmas.  Attaching "conditions" to a CR, as Johnson put it, would be another obstacle.  Some conservative Republicans have pushed for a border security package and/or spending cuts as part of a funding extension, which Democrats will resist.  Johnson said he was considering moving up the start date of 1 percent across-the-board spending cuts to January, coinciding with the CR deadline, rather than April 30th as required under the debt ceiling law, and said "there may be some conditions put on that, perhaps that 1 percent spending cut across the board, instead of becoming effective in April, maybe we make that January 15th to incentivize the Senate to do their work."