With a deadline looming to keep the federal government open, New Mexico’s three U.S. representatives joined colleagues from both parties to ensure federal agencies and programs have enough cash, at least until early next year.
On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Further Appropriations and Other Extensions Act of 2024, also known as H.R. 6363, 336 to 95. It next heads to the Senate for consideration.
Passage of the two-tiered stop-gap measure came as funding for the federal government was anticipated to end on Friday.
For months, Congress has been unable to pass a budget for the current fiscal year, which began Sept. 30.
Such efforts have been hampered by continued feuding within the House Republican conference and clashes over both spending levels and socially conservative policy proposals.
At a press conference immediately following Tuesday’s vote, U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM-01), who backed the bill, expressed relief at its passage.
“We are just grateful to keep the government open and that in and of itself is a win in this chaotic political environment,” she said.
Local lawmakers said a government shutdown would have inflicted heavy damage on New Mexico, a state with large populations of federal government employees and active military personnel, along with veterans.
“Tonight, I voted to keep the government open because a shutdown would be catastrophic for my district. I am committed to working across the aisle, but the House Republicans’ dysfunction must end with a bipartisan funding agreement,” U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-NM-02) posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM-03), in a press release, said that the resolution that passed was devoid of the deep spending reductions and conservative policies on abortion, immigration, climate change and rollbacks of diversity programs.
She noted the continuing resolution also extends the life and authority of community health programs and the 2018 five-year farm bill.
“For now, it’s a win for the people of New Mexico and the American people in the fight against partisan budget cuts,” Leger Fernandez said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA-04) has advocated for the two-tiered measure, under which funding for some agencies and programs will end on Jan. 19, while others will cease on Feb. 2.
A summary of the continuing resolution (CR) that is posted online says that on Jan. 19, funding will run out for programs and authority related to transportation, housing and urban development, the Food Administration, agriculture, rural development, water development, energy, veterans affairs and military construction.
The deadline for a budget for most other departments will be Feb. 2.
Johnson has said the approach, which has never been attempted before, will allow more time to write and pass the 12 appropriations bills that comprise the federal budget, and increase the leverage of the House Republicans in negotiations with President Joe Biden and the Democratically-controlled Senate.
“The bill will stop the absurd holiday-season omnibus tradition of massive, loaded up spending bills introduced right before the Christmas recess. Separating out the CR from the supplemental funding debates places our conference in the best position to fight for fiscal responsibility, oversight over Ukraine aid, and meaningful policy changes at our Southern border,” Johnson said in a press release.
But Stansbury says while sparing the American people a shutdown is a victory in the short term, the laddered CR does not resolve the outstanding issues, so much as it delays them from taking effect.
“Come January, we are going to have another huge showdown over these programs,” Stansbury said.
She added that some of the biggest disagreements have been over government functions that fall under the first funding deadline.
Stansbury noted that come February, the current fiscal year will be halfway over as Congress will still be working to craft a budget for that same period and as President Joe Biden is scheduled to unveil his budget proposal for the next fiscal year.
“It’s just a very strange way to run a government and a very dysfunctional way to run a government,” she said.
A former White House budget official during the Obama Administration, Stansbury says the dependence on short-term continuing resolutions and Congress’ penchant for high-stakes battles, adds instability not only to the government but broader economy, including higher interest rates.
It comes as reports show inflation beginning to cool.
“And that’s really important for the economic well-being of our communities and one of the biggest destabilizations we could do to our economy is to not have reliable and efficient budgeting,” she said.
The need to craft a budget comes amid continued contention among Republicans. Johnson relied heavily on Democrats to advance the stop-gap spending bill, which the House Freedom Caucus and other more combative House Republicans opposed due to the absence of conservative agenda items.
Reliance on Democrats to pass a short-term funding bill is what touched off the historic vote last month that plunged the House of Representatives into a state of turmoil and caused eight Republicans to join with Democrats to oust Johnson’s predecessor Kevin McCarthy (R-CA-20).
Stansbury said there is already a high level of dissatisfaction within the Republican conference and that tension could lead to another House Speaker being removed.
“It’s a pretty ugly situation over there right now. So it’s very possible that, you know, something will happen to the new Speaker, but that’ll really be up to the House GOP conference,” Stansbury said.