CR Passes House While Status in Senate Remains Uncertain

The House this week passed a continuing resolution (CR) that would keep the government open until September 30 but leaves programmatic funding levels in question. The bill (H.R. 1968) generally increases defense spending while decreasing nondefense spending but does not specify program funding levels as a regular appropriations bill would.

Of immediate concern is that the Pell Grant maximum award for 2025-26 is not identified and the broad language leaves program funding decisions up to the discretion of the Department of Education, rather than Congress. A regular appropriations bill also has an accompanying report that spells out congressional intent for programs and program funding levels that a CR does not include.

Without these legislative provisions, it is also unclear if funding will be provided for the other student aid programs, such as Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (SEOG) and Federal Work-Study (FWS) as well as in other programs under the Department.

Continuing Resolutions are usually negotiated on a bipartisan basis because Republican budget hawks usually vote against CRs, requiring Republicans and Democrats to work together on the bill and on passage. This CR was crafted without Democratic input, after weeks of bipartisan negotiations on individual bills couldn’t yield an agreeable outcome. The lead Democratic appropriators in the House and Senate introduced an alternative CR that would keep the government open until April 11, allowing for more time to finalize individual FY 2025 spending bills.

Once the White House stepped into the process, the Democratic alternative was not considered in the House, and Republicans passed the CR on a vote of 217-213 with one Republican voting against, and one Democrat voting for the resolution. The bill was sent to the Senate for consideration as the House adjourned for a planned district work period.

On Wednesday, Senate Democrats indicated that they would not vote for the House CR. As of Thursday afternoon, the Senate was still considering various scenarios to address government funding before today’s deadline. The complication in the Senate is that the Republican majority needs Democratic votes to move the bill through the process. One option is for some Democrats to vote for cloture, the procedural vote to avoid a filibuster, but then vote against final passage, leaving Republicans to muster all their votes to pass the CR. This would avoid a government shutdown. Democrats also want a vote on their four-week alternative CR to continue negotiations on the specific bills. While the amendment would fail, it would allow Democrats time to make their case. Finally, Democrats could vote against the procedural and passage votes leaving Republicans without enough votes to avoid a shutdown.

For more information, please contact:
Stephanie Giesecke