Congress, White House Reach Informal Agreement to Prevent Government Shutdown

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin have reportedly agreed to a stopgap, government-wide funding bill for federal agencies. This informal consensus would avoid a government shutdown in October and extend funding at fiscal year 2020 levels for federal agencies until at least the November 3, 2020 election.

Current funding for the government is set to expire at the end of the fiscal year on September 30, 2020. The funding bill would be a ‘clean’ continuing resolution (CR), meaning that funding levels would be extended but no other funding or general provisions will be added. Previously, lawmakers attempted to combine COVID-19 relief legislation and CR negotiations in a single bill.

In spite of significant differences over what the next COVID-19 stimulus package should look like, Democrats and Republicans have opted to avoid letting these controversies impact government funding before the 2020 election. This stopgap measure also ensures that disagreements over COVID-19 relief legislation do not lead to a government shutdown.

As the Associated Press (AP) reports, Democrats are hoping the stopgap measure will extend into the new year, but Republicans and the administration would prefer it to end in December. The AP reports that the December timeline is more probable at this time.

Regarding the planned CR, GovExec reports that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said, “At this rate, it is likely that we will have to pass a continuing resolution to keep government open past the end of this fiscal year. While that is not ideal, the House will do its job to avert a shutdown that would only further damage our economy.”

The duration of this stopgap measure has not been decided since it is still being discussed informally, but White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, “We do believe that we’ll be able to get funding to avoid a shutdown,” stating that the administration's approach to funding was being "discussed internally."