Pentagon Fails Audit for Sixth Straight Year – By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey (The Fiscal Times) / Nov 16, 2023
Good evening! The government will not be shutting down on Saturday now that the Senate has passed a stopgap spending bill — and did so a full two days before the deadline at midnight on Friday! The vote pushes much of Congress’ to-do list into next year but leaves plenty of urgent matters for lawmakers to take up when they return from their Thanksgiving break.
Here’s your Thursday update.
Congress Defuses Shutdown Threat — for Now
The Senate on Wednesday night approved a short-term spending bill for the federal government, averting a potential shutdown at the end of the week while pushing the next funding deadline into early 2024. Initially passed by the House on Tuesday, the bill now goes to the White House, where President Joe Biden is expected to sign it before a midnight Friday deadline.
The bill passed easily by an 87-11 vote, with 10 Republicans and one Democrat voting against it. The lone Democrat holdout, Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, said he opposed the bill because it failed to include aid for Ukraine.
As we told you earlier this week, the stopgap bill creates two new deadlines early next year, with some departments receiving funding until January 19 and others until February 2 — effectively creating two new shutdown threats. The bill is also “clean,” meaning it includes no amendments addressing divisive issues such as foreign aid and makes no cuts in spending, and instead extends current spending levels into early 2024.
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