The government has officially been funded for an additional 47 days, with President Joe Biden signing a stopgap funding bill less than an hour before the midnight deadline; both houses of Congress had passed the bill earlier today on wide bipartisan votes.
As recently as this morning, it had looked like the government was headed for a shutdown after the House had failed to pass a different stopgap bill yesterday. The tension between the Republican-controlled House, where a cohort of right-wing representatives have repeatedly thrown a wrench in proceedings, and the Democratic-controlled (but typically more bipartisan-minded) Senate had made the prospect of any deal seem unlikely.
But House Republican leaders unveiled a plan at the last minute today that funds the government at FY2023 levels through November 17; also part of the plan is disaster relief funding, though aid for Ukraine is not included. The last-minute plan won the support of nearly every Democrat in Congress and a majority of Republicans, albeit with substantial defections from the latter.
13 of New Jersey’s 14 members of Congress voted for the bill, including both of the state’s U.S. Senators and two of its three Republicans. The lone holdout was Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), who joined 99 of his fellow conservative Republicans in the House and Senate to oppose the bill.
“I’m encouraged that Democrats and Republicans in the Senate joined together in efforts to prevent a shutdown,” Senator Cory Booker said in a statement. “I’m proud that House Democrats stood up to extremists to preserve essential programs that Americans count on. And I look forward to voting on a Ukraine supplemental bill as soon as possible.”
Of course, while a shutdown may have been averted for now, the underlying problem has only been kicked further down the road. To fund the government long-term, the House and Senate will need to find a compromise on 12 appropriations bills, few of which have passed either chamber so far.