House to vote on stopgap bill to avert shutdown

House lawmakers will vote on a stopgap government funding bill to prevent a shutdown this week, as Congress works to wrap up negotiations for a sprawling omnibus spending package for fiscal 2022.

“To provide time for the omnibus to be considered in the Senate and enrolled for the president’s signature without a lapse in appropriations, the House Appropriations Committee will introduce a continuing resolution through March 15,” a House Democratic aide told The Hill shortly after midnight. 

The aide said congressional negotiators will also “begin assembling omnibus government funding legislation in the next few minutes and expect to post soon thereafter, with a Rules Committee meeting to follow.”

The aide said the chamber will vote on both pieces of legislation on Wednesday.

A source also said the Senate is still aiming to pass the funding deal by the current Friday night deadline, but that the days-long continuing resolution would provide time to get the bill printed and to Biden’s desk without risking a shutdown.

The vote comes as House Democrats are set to depart for a three-day retreat in Philadelphia later on Wednesday. The Senate also will not be in session on Wednesday, putting a crunch on legislative time.

Under the current deadline, government funding is set to lapse this weekend as part of a continuing resolution passed by Congress last month. The measure allows the government to remain funded at previous spending levels, set under the Trump administration, while negotiations continue to hash out appropriations talks.

Congress has so far had to pass three continuing resolutions for fiscal 2022 in order to buy negotiators time for spending talks, after lawmakers struggled for months to find bipartisan agreement on issues like parity between levels of growth for defense and nondefense spending, and other areas of contention, such as legislative riders like the Hyde amendment.