The day-to-day operations (click here) of most federal agencies are funded on an annual basis by appropriations. When those appropriation bills are not enacted by the start of the fiscal year on October 1, Congress uses a continuing resolution, or “CR,” as a temporary measure to fund government activities for a limited amount of time. Continuing resolutions are temporary “stopgaps,” often employed to avoid a partial government shutdown and to give lawmakers more time to enact appropriations for the full year. However, programs deemed as essential services, such as those related to public safety, often continue to operate even in the absence of a CR.
December 2, 2021By Clare Foran, Manu Raju, Ted Barrett and Ali Zaslav
Congress averted a government shutdown (click here) Thursday evening when both chambers voted to pass a stopgap bill to extend funding through mid-February after party leaders brokered a deal to overcome GOP brinkmanship over vaccine mandates.
The final tally in the Senate was 69-28.
Passage of the stopgap bill ahead of a Friday at midnight deadline ended a standoff that had threatened to trigger a shutdown when a small number of Republican senators who object to President Joe Biden's vaccine requirements had held out the possibility of holding up a quick vote on the funding bill.
To resolve the impasse, the two parties agreed to hold votes on the stopgap bill as well as a GOP amendment to prohibit the use of federal funding for Covid-19 vaccine mandates, which ultimately failed....
