Schumer Expected To Start Process On CR To Avert Govt Shutdown Today

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is expected to today tee up a legislative vehicle as a placeholder for a Continuing Resolution to avoid a partial government shutdown on January 20. The process usually takes around a week, with a cloture vote in the Senate likely to come Tuesday.

• The move comes after conservative House Republicans yesterday torpedoed a procedural vote in protest of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) FY2024 topline spending deal with Schumer.
• The move to tank their own party’s legislation - something unheard of until recently, demonstrates that - despite the installation of staunch conservative Speaker Johnson, indicates 2024 will be riven by the same divisions which gridlocked 2023 and led to the ouster of former Speaker McCarthy.
• Johnson now in a near identical position to McCarthy in September, when he sought Democrat support to pass a short-term funding measure in the face of a conservative blockade of legislation.
• With Republican and Democrat leadership now seemingly aligned on a CR, primary focus is on whether Johnson can advance the stopgap without prompting a move to oust him. Until yesterday, most observers agreed the risk of another rebellion was low but in light of yesterday’s action, that risk should be ratcheted up a notch.
• Punchbowl News notes it is in Democrats’ interests to head-off any attempt to oust Johnson: “Schumer’s mission here is to preserve the Fiscal Responsibility Act’s spending levels and prevent wider chaos — even if that means throwing a lifeline, indirectly, to Johnson.”