Congress Passes Third Stopgap Spending Bill, Border Security Negotiations Continue
FAIR Take | January 2024
Late last Thursday, Congress passed a third Continuing Resolution (CR) to temporarily fund the federal government. The resolution extends government funding through March 1 for four federal departments and March 8 for the remaining departments, including Homeland Security and Health and Human Services (HHS). The final vote in the House was 314-108, with 106 Republicans voting against the measure and 107 supporting. In the Senate, the resolution passed with 77 yeas and 18 nays, with Republicans voting against.
Congress’s failure to pass a real budget, as opposed to continuing resolutions, means that the spending priorities enacted when Speaker Pelosi presided over the House are still in effect a year after Republicans took control. With respect to immigration, this means that money appropriated to process and release illegal aliens, to fund nonprofits that aid and abet illegal immigration, and to provide social services to newly-arrived migrants all stays intact.
House Republicans have been sparring over appropriate spending levels for months now. The latest CR is designed to provide congressional appropriators additional time to pass twelve appropriations bills following a $1.66 trillion topline agreement between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). Some republicans expressed dismay over that agreement, arguing overall government spending should be lower.
Passage of the short-term spending bill occurred despite significant Republican pushback. Key House groups, such as the Freedom Caucus (HFC), lobbied hard for both spending cuts and border security measures. HFC released a statement before the vote urging opposition, as talk of moving to vacate Speaker Johnson also began to emerge. Congressman Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) said of those rumors, “If things continue to go the way that they’re going, do I think that’s a possible outcome? Absolutely.”
With opposition within his own ranks, Johnson was once again forced to rely on Democrat votes to pass the continuing resolution. The bill was brought up under the House’s suspension calendar, which requires a two-thirds majority for bills to pass but bypasses other procedural hurdles. Both previous stopgap bills were also passed under suspension of the rules, leading to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ouster in October and a pledge from Johnson in November to move future appropriations bills through regular order. Following passage, Schumer said in remarks on the Senate floor, “We have good news for America: there will not be a shutdown on Friday…We will avoid a needless disaster.”
With government funding in place for at least a few more weeks, Congress is now turning its attention to the Biden Administration’s $106 billion foreign aid supplemental request. Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) have been negotiating with the White House and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas since December to reach an agreement on what immigration provisions will be included. While the group is nearing agreement, reports have leaked that the forthcoming bill contains few real policy reforms and multiple giveaways to open-borders advocates. According to HFC Chair Bob Good (R-Va.), “The worst thing we could do is pass something that’s border security in name only, similar to what’s been reported that the Mayorkas-Lankford deal is.”
Last Wednesday, President Biden hosted lawmakers at the White House to discuss the supplemental package. Those in attendance included Speaker Johnson and Majority Leader Schumer, along with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and key committee members in both houses. After the meeting, Johnson renewed his support for the enforcement provisions in H.R 2, the Secure Border Act and reiterated that “we must insist, we must insist, that the border be the top priority.” McConnell took a softer approach, saying, “One of the things that I keep reminding my members is, if we had a 100% Republican government—president, House, Senate—we probably would not be able to get a single Democratic vote to pass what [border negotiators] are trying to get together.”
Thus, after twelve months, the 118th Congress has failed to act on two of its most pressing responsibilities: approving a federal budget and addressing a raging illegal immigration crisis that threatens to bankrupt state and local governments. It is past time for Congress to act. It must now insist that the foreign aid package before the Senate end the mass release of illegal aliens, reform the asylum system, and stop the unlawful use of parole. Only real policy changes will stop the Biden border crisis.
To learn more about H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, and how you can get involved, visit FAIR’s activist toolkit here.