Bills
| 3.23.22

Keeping the Government Open Through December and Suspending Planned Parenthood Funding (H. Joint Res. 61)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is H. Joint Res. 61?

(Updated March 23, 2018)

This resolution would fund the federal government through December 11, 2015. If Congress fails to authorize spending for fiscal year 2016 by the September 30, 2015 deadline, the federal government will enter a partial shutdown beginning on October 1, 2015. 

This bill, originally the Hire More Heroes act, has been changed through the Senate amendment process to serve as a "legislative vehicle": once before for congressional disapproval of the Iran nuclear agreement, and now for FY2016 Continuing Appropriations.  

Looming deadline situations like these often lead Congress to pass a continuing resolution, essentially keeping the government running at the same funding levels from the previous year.

Funding for the federal government would be capped to comply with the spending limits imposed by the Budget Control Act (a.k.a. the sequester) for fiscal year 2016 — a cool $1.017 trillion. Of this, $74.75 billion would be available for Overseas Contingency Operations (like military deployments). $700 million in emergency funding would also be set aside for wildfire suppression to help the western U.S.

Several expiring authorizations would be extended for the duration of the continuing resolution, including:

  • The Internet Tax Freedom Act: preventing the taxation of internet access by all levels of government;

  • E-Verify: a program used to verify whether workers are legally authorized to work in the U.S.;

  • The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA): authorized for a total of six months — about four months longer than the continuing resolution.

There are other unique circumstances that this continuing resolution addresses related to programs that would have lapsed in the absence of funding, including:

For one year after this CR is enacted, federal funds would be cut for Planned Parenthood and its affiliates — unless they certify that they will stop performing abortions for that year. If Planned Parenthood and its affiliates refuse to temporarily stop offering abortions, the approximately $235 million in federal savings would be used to increase funding for community health centers.

Argument in favor

Congress needs to fund the government at least into December so that they can reach a longer term agreement. Cutting off funding for Planned Parenthood is a reasonable way to reign in the nonprofit while investigations continue.

Argument opposed

Yet another short-term extension to keep the government open tied to a highly politicized measure. Can't Congress put aside their differences for once and pass a clean spending bill?

Impact

Anyone who uses federal government services, anyone who works in government in both "essential" and "non essential" services, the federal government itself — particularly departments and programs that would close for a partial government shutdown, John Boehner's career, and Congress.

Cost of H. Joint Res. 61

The CBO estimates that this bill would provide budget authority for $1.099 trillion in spending, and lead to outlays of about $1.185 trillion.

Additional Info

Of Note: Since 2001, Congress has used 55 continuing resolutions to sustain funding for federal programs — 21 of which were used on the 2001 federal budget alone.


In-Depth: Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), the sponsor of this continuing resolution noted that the stalled appropriations process has led to this impasse: 

“Our committee has approved all 12 of the annual appropriations bills required to meet our national security and domestic priorities. Most of these bills have bipartisan support. I encourage Senators to support this continuing resolution so that we can meet our responsibility to the American people to keep government operations open and address the challenges facing our nation.”

In June 2015 Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced that he and fellow Senate Democrats would block the entire appropriations process unless an agreement was made to lift spending caps imposed by the 2011 sequester. Republicans are willing to lift the caps on defense spending, but are reluctant to raise the limits on other discretionary spending because of deficit concerns. 

Democrats in Congress and President Obama disagree, and the President has vowed to veto any budget that doesn’t eliminate the spending caps. Sequestration caps were lowered during the 2014 and 2015 fiscal years, but without Congressional action, they will be in full effect for the fiscal years 2016 - 2023.


Media:

Summary by Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: Flickr user Circa Sassy)