Senate Moves First on Stopgap, Postures in Favor

Senate leadership filed cloture on a motion to proceed to an already passed House funding bill, which could lay the groundwork for a stopgap bill originating in the upper chamber.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat, said Thursday that the chamber was moving forward with H.R. 3935 – legislation reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration.

“I have just filed cloture to move forward on FAA,” Schumer stated on the floor. “As I have said for months, we must work in a bipartisan fashion to keep our government open, avoid a shutdown, and avoid inflicting unnecessary pain on the American people.”

The Hill reported that the FAA bill will likely be used to push a continuing resolution, without Ukraine aid or disaster relief, to fund the federal government for several weeks.

Lawmakers will vote Tuesday to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the FAA bill at 5:30 p.m. ET, hoping to send it to the lower chamber by next Wednesday or Thursday.

While Congress faces a Sept. 30 deadline to send funding legislation to President Joe Biden’s desk, they are considerably behind on approving all 12 separate packages that make up the larger bill.

A significant reason for that is internal Republican divisions between more conservative members and moderates regarding what the House’s proposal should look like.

However, the push for a stopgap bill to keep the government going for around 30 days as lawmakers work toward the longer-term spending package has also appeared to have hit a standstill.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas told Bloomberg earlier this week that he believed a temporary government shutdown was “very likely.”

“They believe that in a shutdown, the press will eagerly blame it on Republicans, and I think Biden and Schumer think they get a political benefit from it,” Cruz said. “So, I think their incentive is to try and force a shutdown.”

Schumer’s decision to move forward on the FAA bill appears to be a step towards provoking House Republicans to hurry up and respond with their own stopgap proposal.