Congress struggled in September to reach agreement on a stopgap continuing resolution (CR) that would keep the federal government operational beyond the October 1 start of the 2016 fiscal year. As the deadline approached it remained unclear whether Republican opposition to funding for Planned Parenthood would sink the overall spending measure.
A CR set for a procedural vote in the Senate on September 28 would fund EPA and other federal agencies at their current levels through December 11, minus a reduction of 0.21 percent. The bill includes none of the controversial environmental policy riders that congressional Republicans sought to attach to EPA spending legislation earlier in the year, such as provisions to block implementation of EPA’s Clean Water Rule and to prevent the Obama Administration from moving forward with its Clean Power Plan to combat climate change.
An earlier version of the Senate CR would have prohibited federal funding of Planned Parenthood, but Senate Democrats were able to block passage of the measure. Senate leaders then re-filed the bill without the Planned Parenthood language, thereby setting up the September 28 vote. Should the revised measure pass the Senate, the House would then have until midnight on September 30 to act to prevent a shutdown.
The federal government last shut down in 2013, under similar circumstances. That time the issue was not Planned Parenthood, but conservative opposition to providing funding for implementation of the Affordable Care Act.