House Passes Bill to Avert Shutdown

Editor's update, Saturday, Sep. 30, 2023

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Saturday to avert a government shutdown. It remains unclear what the next steps in the Senate will be. A deal must be reached by 12:01 a.m. Sunday to avoid a shutdown.

Posted Friday afternoon, Sep. 29, 2023

A Short-Term House Vote Fails as Government Again Stares at Shutdown

OMAHA (DTN) -- House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., failed to get a short-term funding bill passed with his caucus despite trying to appease more conservative members with more cuts to social programs and efforts to beef up the southern border.

The House rejected the one-month continuing resolution on a 198-232 vote as 21 Republicans joined with every Democrat to reject the plan.

McCarthy had attempted to rally his caucus around the bill with a press conference earlier in the day in which he criticized President Joe Biden over border security. He stressed his bill would help secure the border and fund the government.

"Every member will have to go on record of where they stand," McCarthy said. "Are they willing to secure the border? Or do they side with President Biden on an open border and vote against a measure to keep government open?"

The House bill offered for a vote Friday proposed to cut a list of domestic-spending programs by 30%. The White House had already threatened that the president would veto the bill, though there was no way the bill would clear the Senate either. The GOP also went against the debt agreement signed into law in June. The failed continuing resolution would cut, "law enforcement, Meals on Wheels, Head Start, and more," the White House stated.

After the failed vote, the House GOP leadership advised members they should expect votes to be held on Saturday. It was unclear Friday afternoon what the path forward looked like in the House.

The fiscal year 2023 ends Saturday at midnight.

SENATE SIDE

The Senate continued debate on Friday, but that was slowed by the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who died Thursday night. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also spent time being briefed about flooding in New York City. The Senate continued to work slowly on a short-term funding bill that had cleared a procedural vote 76-22 a day earlier.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., insisted the only move forward for McCarthy was to accept a bill when it comes from the Senate and put that bill on the floor for an up or down vote.

"Everyone in this town knows the bill will pass," Jeffries said.

While Schumer blamed the House for failing to clear a short-term bill, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Schumer should also be held accountable for failing to bring appropriation bills to the floor for debate despite each of those bills passing out of committee with bipartisan votes.

"The House ought to take care of its problems, but we ought to take care of ours first, and we haven't done that," Cornyn said.

The Senate was expected to take its vote on a CR early Saturday.

SHUTDOWN IMPACTS

A USDA spokesman on Thursday said the department's market reports such as Crop Progress will pause during a shutdown. Like market news reports, the Export Sales Report will pause as well. NASS reports and data collection will largely stop, which could delay or suspend the October World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) reports as well.

A group of Republican senators sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Friday calling on him to keep the market reports open. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said, "Iowa farmers already endure significant uncertainty, which was amplified this year by drought conditions. Now, Washington bureaucrats have announced they'll pump the brakes on getting market data to farmers if the government shuts down."

Grassley accused USDA of "playing politics" and noted past administrations have kept USDA reports operating during government shutdowns. Under the 2018-19 shutdown during the Trump administration, USDA suspended reports on export sales and canceled several crop reports that are normally released in January. After a monthlong shutdown, USDA in 2019 eventually reopened Farm Service Agency offices before Congress passed its spending bill.

For now, USDA has stated more than 3,000 Farm Service Agency offices will close, delaying access for producers or others who want to apply for USDA loans. Checks for conservation programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) will continue to go out, but USDA will not process or offer any new approved contracts until after the shutdown situation has been resolved.

As the White House stressed earlier in the week, more than 7 million people who receive food aid through the Women, Infant and Children (WIC) program could lose access to that support depending on how long a shutdown lasts.

For a range of federal workers who are considered "essential," such as air traffic controllers and U.S. Border Patrol agents, they will continue to work without pay until a shutdown is resolved.

USDA FUNDING DEBATE

The House had worked throughout the week on a package of spending bills. While lawmakers cleared along partisan lines the Defense, Homeland Security and Department of State funding bills, the House late Thursday failed to pass the 2024 funding bill for USDA and FDA by a vote of 191 to 237, with 27 Republicans joining 210 Democrats in voting against the bill.

No Democrat voted for the bill. Several Republicans who voted against the bill were members of the House Agriculture Committee or came from the GOP's moderate wing.

Listen to DTN's Field Posts podcast on the government shutdown "E164: Ag Braces for a Season of Uncertainty in Washington": https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

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