Congress Looks to Pass Stopgap Bill to Avert Government Shutdown
With less than two weeks before the next fiscal year (FY) begins, congressional appropriators remain far from an agreement on FY2026 spending bills. As a result, Congress turned its attention to passing a continuing resolution (CR) this week to avert a government shutdown at the end of the month. A CR would also provide appropriators more time to reach a comprise on FY2026 spending bills. House Republicans unveiled CR bill text earlier this week, which maintains current FY2025 spending levels through November 21. House Republicans also released an accompanying section-by-section summary.

Most notably, the bill, as of this writing, does not include the healthcare policy provisions that congressional Democrats outlined ahead of its release as prerequisites to secure their support. Additionally, as of this writing, the decision by Republican leadership to pursue a CR has also received opposition from certain rank-and-file Republicans. Despite these objections, congressional Republicans continue to plan to push the CR through Congress.

Congress is scheduled to be on recess next week. House leadership has stated the desire to pass the CR by this Friday. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has stated his desire for the Senate to quickly pass the measure before the weekend, assuming successful House passage. However, due to the House’s narrow margin, Republicans can only afford to lose two votes if Democrats vote no. Meanwhile, there is a 60-vote threshold to pass the measure. Based on the opposition from Democrats and certain Republican lawmakers, whether Congress can pass the CR remains unclear at this time. If Congress cannot pass the CR before midnight on September 30, the federal government will shut down.

 

Senate Confirms EPA’s Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water
On September 17, the Senate confirmed Jess Kramer to be the Assistant Administrator of the Office of Water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Senate voted 52 to 47 to confirm her nomination. The Office of Water is responsible for upholding water quality protections and implementation of the Clean Water Act. Kramer’s successful confirmation means that the Office of Water will now have formal leadership to guide its wider policy and regulatory responsibilities, including how to respond to PFAS contamination in water resources.

Kramer was one of 48 nominees to be confirmed on Wednesday due to Senate Republicans modification to the rules governing the Senate nomination confirmation. Following this year’s repeated failures by the Senate to confirm nominees, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) advanced the “nuclear option” to make it easier to confirm nominees. Traditionally, the Senate has been required to debate nominations one by one.  However, Thune’s decision to resort to the “nuclear” option allowed nominees to be bundled to expedite debate.