Nov 17, 2023
On November 14, nearly all Democrats joined with a plurality of Republicans to pass House Speaker Mike Johnson's continuing resolution. The CR was rapidly passed in the Senate and signed by President Biden. The CR appropriates funding for some programs through January 19, for most others through February 2, and for the Farm Bill through September 30. This gives the CR a couple of seemingly-new twists. Kicking the can past Christmas is superficially new. In reality, this just makes governing by CRs last longer, which is nothing new. Fanning out a single resolution so funding allocations expire not on one date certain but on three is new. In reality, this likely will work out to be not-at-all different. Johnson claimed before the vote, "I'm done with short-term CRs." But at each of this CR's three dates-certain, the pressures and incentives will remain the same, and the same bipartisan majority will stand ready to pass still-more continuing resolutions. Like the lat