Congress and the Administration are swiftly nearing the November 17 expiration of the current Continuing Resolution that is keeping the federal government funded.

The House was unable to conduct regular business, including work on appropriations measures, during the three weeks in October it did not have a Speaker. However, the chamber, under the new leadership of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), has worked in an ambitious effort on the remaining stand-alone bills that would fund Fiscal Year 2024 and prevent a government shutdown.

The House has passed seven of the twelve bills, while the Senate has passed three. Differences between the funding bills would need to be ironed out before any bill could be sent to President Biden to be signed into law. Congress will need to pass another short-term CR to prevent an impending shutdown.

Speaker Johnson and others in House leadership are currently considering three options as next steps for Fiscal Year 2024 funding. Those include a traditional CR that extends into mid-January of 2024, minus supplemental funding for Ukraine and other priorities, a separate deal hammered out with the Senate, or a “laddered” approach to provide funding on a piecemeal basis. The “laddered” option would extend funding for four of the twelve appropriations bills through December 7 and the other eight bills through January 19, 2024. Defense appropriations would likely be included in the first group. The “laddered” approach has received criticism that it creates multiple shutdown cliffs and even more challenges.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks urged Congress to finalize defense funding in remarks on Tuesday. “One of the strongest signals of healthy civil-military relations we can send right now is Congress passing a fiscal year 2024 Defense appropriations and soon,” Hicks said at a Center for New American Security event in Washington, as reported by Kirsten Errick of Federal News Radio. “While we appreciate the continuing resolution that keeps the government open, the clock is ticking again . . . The now-routine failure to secure needed resources for defense, and for the whole government, erodes military trust in civilian leaders. If you add up the months DOD has been under a CR since 2011, it totals four years’ worth of delays, delayed new programmings, delayed training and delayed permanent change of station moves. We cannot afford any further delays.”

We will closely monitor all developments related to FY2024 funding and keep you apprised.