CR “On the Bubble”

At this point, no one can say for certain whether Congress will pass a short-term continuing resolution (through mid-December) or let the government shut down when the fiscal year ends on September 30th.  Earlier this week, the House introduced a “clean” Continuing Resolution (CR) (HJ Res 59) that would have continued Federal funding at the FY 13 level of $986.3 billion and included no policy changes or riders.  To placate House conservatives, a separate proposal to de-fund the Health Care law would be also sent to the Senate, requiring a vote on that measure before the continuing resolution could be brought up.  That approach pleased no one and, as a result, the House has delayed a vote on the CR until next week.  In the interim, Reps. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) are floating another alternative that proposes to delay implementation of the Health Care law for one year and use those “savings” to offset sequestration impacts in response to conservative calls that any CR use the reduced FY 14 sequestration levels of $967 billion.