On September 19th, the House voted on a measure to fund the government through November 21st. The continuing resolution was approved 301 to 123. The Senate is expected to approve the measure next week. With only ten days remaining in Fiscal Year 2019, the two chambers need to approve the stopgap measure to avoid a government shutdown.

To date, the House has approved ten of 12 appropriations bills. The two bills that still require approval are the Legislative Branch and Homeland Security appropriation measures. On the other hand, the full Senate has yet to act on any of the 12 measures, although the Senate Appropriations Committee has completed work on five spending bills.

A continuing resolution, or “CR”, is a spending measure that allows Congress to fund the federal government for a limited amount of time. Congress resorts to them to allow more time to enact appropriation bills to fund the federal government for the full fiscal year. Among the drawbacks, a CR continues the pre-existing appropriations at the same levels as the previous fiscal year and restricts the implementation of new federal programs.