The Senate’s passage by a vote of 73-22 follows the House approving on Wednesday the $1.01 trillion stopgap measure — which funds agencies at their current spending levels through Dec. 11. The stopgap measure will now head to President Obama, who has indicated he will sign it.

“The administration appreciates that the House bill allows critical government functions to operate without interruption and avoids a damaging government shutdown,” the White House wrote in a statement of administration policy.

Federal employee advocates also expressed support for the continuing resolution, but said the short-term nature of the bill makes it difficult for agencies to carry out their missions.

“As we have seen over the past several years, a series of short-term, patchwork funding solutions are becoming the norm rather than the exception,” said the Federal-Postal Coalition, an amalgamation of more than 30 federal workforce groups. “Continuing resolutions tie the hands of managers and employees alike by limiting strategic planning and restricting resources to get the job done.”

In some respects, however, the CR was good news for federal workers. The stopgap bill is mum on President Obama’s request to grant federal employees a 1 percent, across-the-board pay raise in 2015, effectively allowing the pay bump to go through. Congress, which is set to recess this week until after the upcoming November election, will aim to pass an omnibus appropriations bill when it returns. Lawmakers could theoretically block the pay raise at that time, though they have yet to show any interest in doing so.

The CR will extend the charter of the Export-Import Bank — set to expire Sept. 30 — through June 2015. Bank officials said they would not have been forced to shut their doors come Oct. 1 in the absence of congressional action, but the agency’s 400 employees would have been out of a job when its portfolio reached maturity.

The Obama administration offered tepid praise for the Ex-Im provision.

“While the administration acknowledges that the bill reauthorizes the Export-Import Bank, the administration encourages the Congress to pass a long-term extension to provide certainty to job-creators that export U.S.-made products and services,” the White House said.

The CR also includes a boost in funding for the Veterans Affairs Department to investigate potential impropriety in manipulating waitlist data and retaliating against whistleblowers. It would increase appropriations to reduce VA’s disability claims backlog and allow Customs and Border Protection the flexibility to move funds around so it can maintain current workforce levels.

The measure avoids more controversial provisions, such as addressing the U.S. Postal Service’s plan to close 82 facilities nationwide in 2015. A majority of senators and 160 House representatives wrote to their respective appropriations committees asking that any spending bill delay closures for one year.

Per Obama’s direct request, the spending bill includes language authorizing the training and arming of moderate opposition against the radical Islamic group ISIS.

(Image via Gary Blakeley / Shutterstock.com)

A spending bill to keep government agencies open appears poised to clear Congress this week, though the final iteration of the measure remains unclear.

Lawmakers in the House debated the continuing resolution, which would fund agencies and avoid a government shutdown until Dec. 11, at length on Tuesday, with members of both parties agreeing the stopgap measure was poor practice but unfortunately necessary. The legislators took considerable time — an unusual six hours — to debate President Obama’s request to authorize further military strikes and opposition training and arming to “degrade and destroy” the radical Islamist group ISIS.

House leadership anticipated a vote on both the military request, which is being offered as an amendment to the spending bill by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, R-Calif., and the CR itself on Wednesday. The Senate would then vote on the measure on Thursday before it leaves Washington, D.C., in advance of the upcoming November election.

House Republicans said on Tuesday passage of Obama’s military request would require the support of at least some Democrats, many of whom have expressed reservations about authorizing airstrikes and more Americans on the ground in Iraq. The underlying shutdown averting bill has encountered little resistance, however.

“We should not and cannot continue to fall back on short-term spending bills like this one,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., author of the $1.01 trillion bill, on the House floor Tuesday. He added the lack of regular order in appropriations causes “uncertainty within our federal agencies and economy,” but that “at this time though, the best way to avoid serious damage to this country is to pass this continuing resolution.”

So far the House has passed seven of the 12 spending bills necessary to issue line-by-line appropriations at each agency, while the Senate has passed none. Rogers blamed Senate Democrats for necessitating the stopgap measure.

The stopgap bill is mum on Obama’s request to grant federal employees a 1 percent, across-the-board raise in 2015, effectively allowing the pay bump to go through. Congress would aim to pass an omnibus appropriations bill after the midterms. Lawmakers could theoretically block the pay raise at that time, though they have yet to show any interest in doing so.

If passed, the CR would extend the charter of the Export-Import Bank — set to expire Sept. 30 — through June 2015. While Bank officials said they would not have been forced to shut their doors come Oct. 1 in the absence of congressional action, the agency’s 400 employees would have been out of a job when its portfolio reached maturity.

The CR also includes a boost in funding for the Veterans Affairs Department to investigate potential impropriety in manipulating waitlist data and retaliating against whistleblowers. It would increase appropriations for VA to reduce its disability claims backlog and allow Customs and Border Protection the flexibility to move funds around so it can maintain its current workforce levels.

The measure avoids more controversial provisions, such as addressing the U.S. Postal Service’s plan to close 82 facilities nationwide in 2015. A majority of senators and 160 House representatives wrote to their respective appropriations committees asking that any spending bill delay closures for one year.

(Image via Flickr user Rich Renomeron)

When it comes to the federal employee pay raise, no news is good news.

And that is exactly what feds received from House Republicans in the spending bill introduced Tuesday evening to keep government open past Sept. 30. The $1.01 trillion continuing resolution makes no mention of the raise, meaning it would allow President Obama’s 1 percent, across-the-board 2015 pay bump to go into effect.

If approved, the spending measure would avoid a government shutdown through Dec. 11, when Congress would aim to pass an omnibus appropriations bill for the remainder of fiscal 2015. Lawmakers could theoretically block the pay raise at that time, though they have yet to show any interest in doing so.

The bill, authored by House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., maintains current spending levels for the rest of the calendar year. The House plans to vote on the measure on Thursday.

Lawmakers are desperate to avoid any appropriations lapse in the run up to the November midterm elections. While Rogers hailed the bill as a “clean” CR that simply continues the spending levels awarded to federal agencies for fiscal 2014, final passage is still subject to more controversial measures getting attached to it. In response to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, calling for the continuing resolution to end President Obama’s authority to defer deportations of undocumented residents, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said such a movement could block a bill.

“They have every right to do whatever they want legislatively,” Reid said on Tuesday. “If they want to be the lead team of shutting down the government, that’s what they’re going to have to do.”

While Rogers said his bill “does not seek to change existing federal policies,” the measure does contain some provisions necessary to confront current crises and “ensure good government.”

In a major coup for the White House, House Republicans agreed to extend the charter of the Export-Import Bank — set to expire Sept. 30 — until June 2015. While Bank officials said they would not have been forced to shut their doors come Oct. 1 in the absence of congressional action, the agency’s 400 employees would have been out of a job when its portfolio reached maturity.

The CR also includes a boost in funding for the Veterans Affairs Department to investigate potential impropriety in manipulating waitlist data and retaliating against whistleblowers. It also increases appropriations for VA to reduce its disability claims backlog.

While Cruz and some conservative Republicans are pushing for the bill to address larger immigration policy, Rogers’ bill simply allows Customs and Border Protection the flexibility to move funds around so it can maintain its current workforce levels. 

In another victory for the Obama administration, the bill fully funds the White House’s $88 million request to research and fight the spread of Ebola. The measure avoids more controversial provisions, such as addressing the U.S. Postal Service’s plan to close 82 facilities in 2015 across the country. A majority of senators, including Reid and members of both parties, wrote to the Senate Appropriations committee asking that any spending bill delay closures for one year.

Rogers said he expects the stopgap measure to reach Obama’s desk without much resistance.

“We have reached the point where a continuing resolution is necessary to keep the government functioning and avoid another shutdown,” he said.  “It is a critical piece of legislation, and my committee has crafted the bill in a responsible, restrained way that should draw wide support in the House and Senate.”

(Image via Orhan Cam/Shutterstock.com)