News
The Shutdown Show Proves to Be All Bluster as Congress Passes Another Funding Extension
- By: USAging
- On: 12/03/2021 12:53:49
- In: Policy & Advocacy
Yesterday, the House and Senate reached a deal that will temporarily fund the government (yay!) with another continuing resolution (CR) through February 18 (boo!—we wanted a shorter CR). The threat of a shutdown is over (for now) but our concern of additional CRs or even worse, a year-long CR under FY 2021 spending levels remains.
The CR passed in the House and Senate late last night after a few select Republicans were able to vote on amendment that highlighted their opposition to mask and vaccine mandates, thus providing a path to an expeditious vote and once again punting the federal funding to February. What did the amendment have to do with a stopgap measure to fund the government you may ask? Not much, but a small minority of Republicans wanted to make certain their sentiments were known. More importantly, congressional leaders achieved a consensus to avoid a shutdown and they delivered.
In summary, Congress will continue to fund the government at FY 2021 funding levels through February 18, 2022. USAging would like to thank you for your advocacy during our most recent anti-long-CR Advocacy Alert. Clearly our work is not done and we will continue to press for FY 2022 funding levels and against any future CRs in the coming weeks. Please continue to check USAging's recent Advocacy Alerts and our Appropriations Campaign page to help you connect with your elected officials on this and other critical issues.
For more information about these and other federal aging policy issues, please contact USAging's policy team: Amy Gotwals and Monica Billger at policy@usaging.org, 202.872.0888.