Congress has passed and President Joe Biden has signed into law an emergency funding resolution to keep the federal government operating until at least Dec. 3.
All three of Vermont’s congressional representatives — Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt. — voted to approve the resolution and prevent a federal government shutdown Thursday night.
The measure passed the Senate 65-35, after which the House of Representatives backed it on a vote of 254-175. In both houses of Congress, the legislation had significant Republican support.
The resolution includes money for states ravaged by hurricanes and fires this summer, and for assistance to Afghan refugees who have come to the U.S. in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover.
However, a Democratic effort to simultaneously raise the federal debt ceiling was defeated in the face of Republican opposition. Once the government hits the debt ceiling, it can’t borrow money to pay expenses.
In a statement on the Senate floor Thursday, Leahy said that passing the budget resolution without raising the debt ceiling was essentially “voting on a blank check.” According to the Department of the Treasury, he said, the federal government will run out of money in 18 days. If that happens, the country would be unable “to pay our men and women in uniform, to send out Social Security checks, and to take care of our veterans.”
If Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling, Leahy said, “the economy would take such a hit it would take years to recover. The stock market would plummet, putting millions of Americans’ lifetime savings at risk.”
Tonight as Senate President Pro Tem, after Speaker Pelosi I signed the engrossed copy of the Leahy Amendment that will prevent a govt. shutdown at Midnight. It now goes to the President. pic.twitter.com/TXPytiJcZx
— Sen. Patrick Leahy (@SenatorLeahy) September 30, 2021
Leahy, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, led the charge this year to restore congressional earmarks, which allow individual members to designate money for home-state priorities. Leahy has lined up significant funding for Vermont organizations through the earmark process.
But in order for that funding to reach Vermont, the 12 federal appropriations bills to which they are attached would need to be passed by Congress and signed into law. That has not yet happened, which is why Thursday’s stopgap funding measure was necessary before the start of the next fiscal year on Friday.
If Leahy and his colleagues are able to approve the appropriations bills before Dec. 3, the earmarks would make their way to Vermont. Otherwise, Congress would need to pass another continuing resolution.
