Annual Government Shutdown Megathread (Cycle ends with Momentary Shutdown)

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

[[SHUTDOWN CAUSED BY THE SENATE. SEE PAGE SIX.]]

Yep, it's time to shut down the Government again! And it's actually happening this time.

The appropriations process this year has been a royal mess.

The House

The House never passed a formal budget bill from the Committee on the Budget, which is where the process is supposed to begin. Instead, this document was worked out as part of the Fiscal Responsibility Act to raise the Debt Ceiling. That should have been the effective end of the discussion on topline spending levels and fueled an orderly drafting of appropriations bills to a total level of $1.59 Trillion for FY2024, exactly as stated in that Act.

But instead, Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Appropriations Committee Chair Kay Granger, under pressure from the Freedom Caucus, announced they would draft appropriations bills substantially below those limits, with a goal of around $1.5 Trillion, perhaps even lower. Also planned were a slew of new riders, on topics ranging from Critical Race Theory to LGBTQ issues to Climate Change. The appropriations committee proceeded to pass 10 of the 12 bills along partisan lines, leaving the Labor-HHS and CJS Bills stuck in committee. The Budget Committee also still passed a formal house budget framework that would balance in 10 years, this document has not seen the house floor so far.

While the process in the appropriations committee was fairly smooth, McCarthy spent until Late July doing nothing. Then shortly before the August Recess, he declared that the House would vote on 2 of the 12 appropriations bills: Veterans Affairs and Agriculture. Veterans Affairs, always the easiest bill because everyone loves vets and no one really insisted on spending cuts there, passed the House without issue. Agriculture was supposed to be easy too, after all, what Republican doesn't love cutting Food Stamps? Well, it all got ruined when some Republicans insisted on using the bill as a platform to ban the abortion pill nationwide. A whole slew of moderates threatened to vote No, the bill was pulled, and everyone was promptly sent home for August Recess.

The House returned September 11 with only a few short weeks to fund the Government before the annual September 30 deadline to avoid a government shutdown. As usual, there appeared to be a need for a Continuing Resolution to keep the lights on temporarily. But the Freedom Caucus said any CR would have to include their preferred immigration policy - or at least that appeared to be their position until a few broke off from the rest of the ranks and said they would oppose any CR, instead preferring to shut down until regular funding is passed. McCarthy briefly brought a possible CR before the rules committee before quickly pulling it from consideration.

So, the House resumed consideration of Regular Appropriations Bills. After several failed rule votes, a rule for the Homeland Security bill, the State-Foreign Operations Bill, the Defense Bill, and the Agriculture Bill passed. The House passed on Thursday 9/28 three of the four bills, with the agriculture bill failing due to the abortion provision. Ukraine funding was removed from the defense bill and passed separately.

Two more bills are set to be teed up by the Rules Committee soon, those funding Interior and Energy and Water. But currently there is still no CR on the docket (though this could change at any moment) and the House seems to be accepting a shutdown will happen.

The Senate

Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray and Ranking Member Susan Collins pledged that they would be different than their predecessors and their house counterparts. Collins agreed to not pursue the slew of new riders favored by the House, Murray pledged to not pursue repeal of longstanding abortion riders opposed by many in her party. Both agreed to the Fiscal Responsibility Act spending levels. And for weeks, it worked perfectly. All 12 appropriations bills passed out of committee with strong bipartisan support, many of them unanimously. The Senate went on August Recess ready to expeditiously pass its bills across the floor in September.

Upon its return on September 5, the Senate decided to procrastinate with some nominations for a week but then got to work. The Senate floor process began with plans to pass a Minibus of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, and Transportation funding. The initial procedural votes were easy, but then enter Senator Ron Johnson. He objected to bundling the bills together, demanding standalone consideration of each. Schumer, citing time constraints and a lack of House vehicles to use to comply with constitutional requirements, refused and attempted to suspend the rules to override him, which failed to achieve the required 2/3 majority. The minibus was ultimately pulled from the floor.

The Senate has spent this week advancing a possible CR with disaster relief and supplemental Ukraine funding, using the House passed FAA reauthorization bill (which also must be reauthorized at least temporarily by Sept. 30) as their vehicle. The CR is currently expected to pass sometime over the weekend, but even if the House acquiesces quickly a short shutdown is expected due to time constraints.


Watch the action hour by hour on this thread until the Government is funded!

What services are affected by a shutdown? While many services are essential and continue (albeit with their employees working without pay until they are backpaid after the shutdown is over), others are delayed or halted entirely. Unlike in 2018 where only select agencies were affected due to 5 of the 12 appropriations bills having been signed into law, this will be  a complete shutdown affecting agencies funded by any of the 12 appropriations bills. Here's some good summaries of what is affected.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/27/government-shutdown-looms-personal-finance-impact.html
http://dankildee.house.gov/governmentshutdown
https://time.com/6316879/how-government-shutdown-affects-americans/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/09/26/government-shutdown-agencies-services-affected/ (paywalled)

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

No other country lets this happen. We are a laughing stock...well, more so.

We should shut down the government more, actually. Our Congressmen need to do more to break the spending cartel that is robbing us.

In the long term, having had a government shutdown actually adds to the deficit

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

GOP Preferred CR fails 198-232

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Don't members of the House have 1 opportunity per session to force a vote on the House floor without leadership approval? Or did I remember this rule wrong.

That was an idea that was floated when Pelosi was working to win enough votes for Speaker in 2019 but it was never actually enacted.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

03:32:57 PM      The Speaker announced that the House do now recess. The next meeting is subject to the call of the Chair.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Motion to Adjourn fails 427-0 (was used to get additional time to read the bill).

As the House CR is being done under suspension, a 2/3 majority on final passage will be required.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

In their conference meeting, the GOP had discussed just shutting down the government or only opening select parts like the DoD and the FAA. Then McCarthy's own appropriators demanded a clean CR.

https://twitter.com/sarahnferris/status/1708136773719576674

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Dem Floor Leadership isn't formally whipping on this but DELAURO (Top Dem on Appropriations) appears to be urging a No.

https://twitter.com/sarahnferris/status/1708164730542530729/photo/1

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Apparently a part of why McCarthy caved is because doing the remaining appropriations bills during a shutdown could be complicated:

https://twitter.com/juliegraceb/status/1708130545949974533

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Jeffries now demanding an up or down vote on the SENATE CR (which has yet to pass the Senate).

One issue with the House CR is it is not as explicit as the Senate Version on prohibiting a member pay raise during the shutdown: https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2023/09/30/congress/member-pay-in-the-stopgap-00119270

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

amendment to fix the pay issue in the House CR passes by voice

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

House CR PASSES 335-91.

On to the SENATE

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1708208837864407291

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Hate to bring bad news it's not gonna effect welfare or SSDi but by M the most, McConnell said based on no aid to Ukraine he will Filibuster the Spending bill

As I said Congress would have to pay retro pay if there is no agreements on spending

McConnell is filibustering the Senate version. The House CR just passed could still get a vote.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1708286216917918136?s=20

See you in November

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

After an Ouster of a Speaker, the House would ultimately pass 7 of its own appropriations bills, while the Senate only managed three.

After a series of continuing resolutions, 6 appropriations bills were negotiated and signed into law by President Biden.

However, despite the package of the remaining 6 negotiated appropriations bills passing the House, it has hit a snag in the Senate (after passing a motion to proceed) due to disagreements over border policy.

https://twitter.com/Eric_Schmitt/status/1771370304457040293

Therefore, the agencies funded by the remaining 6 appropriations bills are shutting down as of Midnight Tonight (3/22/24). These are:

Department of Homeland Security (includes TSA and the Border Patrol)
Department of Defense
Department of Labor, Health, and Human Services
Department of State and Foreign Operations
Financial Services and General Government (potentially includes D.C. Attractions)
Legislative Branch (Congressional Staff, Library of Congress, Capitol Police. Salaries for Members of Congress are not discretionary and thus continue.)

The Shutdown is likely over by Sunday, and almost certainly by Monday, but still, welcome to Anarchy! We'll see what happens.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

The Shutdown officially began about 10 minutes ago. We'll see how quickly the Senate is able to pass this.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1771393171341427071

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1771396733487988883

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1771399349852901530

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1771401528575758546

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1771403687799439702

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1771405698565321055

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Not agreed to by voice vote: Motion to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R.2882, with Lankford amendment #1713.

Not agreed to by voice vote: Motion to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R.2882, with Lankford amendment #1718

Not agreed to by voice vote: Blackburn motion to refer the House Message to accompany H.R.2882, Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to the Appropriations Committee with instructions.

.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Not agreed to, 47-51: Budd motion to table the motion to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R.2882, with Schumer amendment #1794 for the purpose of offering Budd amendment #1807.

Not agreed to, 47-51: Hagerty motion to table the motion to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R.2882, with Schumer amendment #1793, for the purpose of offering Hagerty #1808.