House passes bill to fund government through end of fiscal year

by Jed Lewison

In a vote taken early Wednesday afternoon, the House has passed a continuing resolution to fund government through the end of the fiscal year, a move that has the potential to avoid a government shutdown—at least until October. The measure passed with a margin of 267-151. A total of 214 Republicans voted in favor it along with 53 Democrats. A total of 137 Democrats opposed it and were joined by 14 Republicans.

In a statement of administration policy released yesterday, the White House said it was "deeply concerned" about the legislation and wants to see it "strengthened" before it becomes law, a step that could take place after the Senate passes its continuing resolution and the two chambers meet in conference committee to reach a compromise. The White House said it was "pleased" that the bill is "consistent with the mutually agreed upon budget framework" stemming from the 2011 debt limit crisis, but:

<...> the bill raises concerns about the Government's ability to protect consumers, avoid deep cuts in critical services that families depend on, and implement critical domestic priorities such as access to quality and affordable health care. Furthermore, while the legislation includes the Department of Defense and the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies fiscal year 2013 bills, the remainder of Federal agencies are left to operate at last year's level, which will impede their ability to provide services to Americans and efficiently allocate funding to key programs including those in infrastructure, clean energy, education, and research and development.

So, within the context of the 2011 framework, Republicans have taken care of defense but screwed over everything else (not to mention failing to replace the sequester). But this bill is not the final say—the Senate will pass a bill, and the two pieces of legislation will have to be reconciled. Overall, it's a bad situation, and austerity is nobody's friend, but at least there is a process moving along that should avert a government shutdown unless House Republicans refuse to budge on their assault on domestic priorities.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/03/06/1192059/-House-passes-bill-to-fund-government-through-end-of-fiscal-year