White House calls on Congress to pass short-term spending measure to prevent shutdown

The White House on Thursday urged Congress to pass a short-term spending bill to avert a government shutdown and fund key programs as lawmakers inch closer to a Sept. 30 deadline.

“Although the crucial work continues to reach a bipartisan, bicameral agreement on fiscal year 2024 appropriations bills, it is clear that a short-term continuing resolution (CR) will be needed next month,” a spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement to The Hill.

“As part of our responsibility to prudently plan for a short-term CR, OMB is providing Congress with technical assistance needed to avoid severe disruptions to government services in the first quarter of the fiscal year,” the spokesperson added.

The Washington Post first reported that among the new funding requests made by the Biden administration are an additional $1.4 billion to fund nutritional aid programs for low-income families, as well as $1.9 billion for the Office of Refugee Resettlement to handle thousands of new arrivals from Haiti and Cuba.

The administration is also asking Congress to let federal agencies spend more quickly to prepare for pandemics, process student loan applications and payments and review Social Security claims.

“We urge Congress to include these anomalies along with the critical emergency supplemental needs the Administration transmitted earlier this month in any forthcoming CR, as they have done on a bipartisan basis many times in the past,” the OMB spokesperson said.

Thursday’s request is in addition to a roughly $40 billion supplemental spending request the White House sent to Congress earlier this month, which included $24 billion in military, financial and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine.

The previous funding request also included a request for $12 billion in supplemental funds to ensure the Federal Emergency Management Agency has enough money to respond to natural disasters, as well as to handle future disasters. That figure has become even more pressing as the agency responds to wildfires in Hawaii and Hurricane Idalia in Florida.

Congress must pass a funding bill before the end of September to avoid a government shutdown. The process could be painful once lawmakers return after Labor Day, with some House conservatives expressing an openness to a shutdown if Democrats do not agree to spending cuts.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is asking House Republicans to help him pass a “short-term” continuing resolution to fund the government beyond Sept. 30 as both chambers slog through the government funding process. 

The House has cleared just one of 12 regular appropriations bills, while the Senate has not gotten any past the finish line. The House will be in session for just 11 legislative days until the end of fiscal 2023.