Stopgap Spending Bill Clears Senate With Omnibus Package Expected Monday

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted 71-19 on Thursday to clear a one-week continuing resolution to keep the government funded as lawmakers finish work on the omnibus spending package.

Lawmakers now have through Dec. 23 to get the massive spending plan done. It is expected to be unveiled Monday afternoon in the Senate.

From there, after the requisite votes to approve it, the bill will head to the House, likely on Wednesday.

In a note to members sent out Thursday evening, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said the chamber is expected to meet Wednesday, Dec. 21, with the first votes likely not coming before 6:30 p.m.

“Members are further advised that the House is also expected to meet on Thursday, Dec. 22, and will stay in session until the omnibus is completed,” Hoyer said. 

“If the Senate is able to act on the omnibus earlier in the week, members will be given 24-hours’ notice before the House will be called back to session,” he added.

House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., told reporters on Thursday that she’s confident the House will clear the omnibus quickly once it comes before them.

“I can’t account for crazy things that come up, but that’s my goal,” she said.

During her weekly briefing with reporters, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said, “We would have liked to have [approved the spending bill] much sooner.

“Quite frankly, if you listen to Mr. Hoyer, and I do, we should have had these bills all done. We finished our bills. The Senate has not passed one appropriations bill. Not one. 

“ And what we would hope in the future is that the bills would pass in the House and Senate, their versions go to conference, have it done by Sept. 30. In order to do that, you would have to have most of your bills done by the end — as you go into the August recess,” she said. 

“So there’s a better way to do it, yes. But the fact is we’re on a good path now to get something done,” she added. “And again, it’s not — it’s not the bill any one of us would have written, but it’s the bill that we can agree to.”

 In other spending news, the Senate on Thursday voted 83-11 to pass the final defense authorization bill for fiscal year 2023, clearing the measure for President Joe Biden’s signature.

The House passed the bicameral compromise on Dec. 8.

Once the president signs off on it, about $858 billion will be authorized for spending on defense programs for the 2023 fiscal year.

The final number is about $45 billion or 5% more than Biden asked for in the proposed spending plan he released in March, and it is about 10% higher than was authorized in fiscal year 2022, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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