The Senate will vote on whether to support a seven-week long continuing resolution by the end of this week, the chamber’s senior Republican leader said Monday.
Congress has just one week to pass a CR to keep funding the government at fiscal 2019 levels before the Sept. 30 deadline, and the Senate will vote on the House-passed CR bill to continue negotiations on appropriations bills, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the Senate floor Monday.
“Before the end of the week, we’ll vote on a continuing resolution to prevent a lapse in funding while the work continues,” he said.
The House passed the short-term CR – which funds the government through Nov. 21 – on Sept. 19 by a vote of 301-123.
McConnell also used his floor speech Monday to call for the Senate to work together to pass the fiscal year 2020 defense spending bill, blaming Democrats for filibustering an effort to bring the bill to the Senate floor last Thursday, “for the sake of a political fight with the president.”
“But I remain hopeful that we can get this process back on track,” McConnell said.
At current levels, the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, in charge of stockpile stewardship and nonproliferation operations would be funded at $15 billion at an annualized rate through Nov. 21. The department’s Office of Environmental Management, which manages cleanup of 16 nuclear sites, would be funded at an annualized rate of $7 billion.
The House in June passed legislation that would fund DOE and other agencies in fiscal 2020. The Senate has yet to take up an energy and water development bill advanced by its Appropriations Committee earlier this month.
