Congress has averted a government shutdown.
All three members of Alaska’s congressional delegation, like most lawmakers, voted for a short-term spending bill that will keep the government funded until Dec. 20.
The final vote was overwhelming. In the House: 341-82. In the Senate: 78-18.
These stop-gap bills, called continuing resolutions or CRs, have become the norm. It’s been decades since Congress was able to pass all of its appropriations bills before the start of the fiscal year. A continuing resolution keeps the prior year’s spending levels in place. It’s not a good way to fund government, Sen. Lisa Murkowski said.
“It means that things that needed to be scrubbed from the prior year, we’re not able to get rid of them,” she said. “Those priorities that we have identified over this budget cycle, we’re not able to start them.”
When Congress has to pass multiple CRs to get through the year, “you may, in fact, be keeping in place expenditures that the Congress has determined are no longer needed,” she said.
But, she said, it would’ve been worse to let the government shut down.
In the House, Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola joined all Democrats in voting yes.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson needed those Democratic votes. They allowed him to sidestep former President Donald Trump’s insistence that the bill had to include a measure requiring voters to show proof of citizenship.
Among the hard-right House Republicans who voted no on the short-term spending bill were members affiliated with the House Freedom Fund, which endorsed Alaska congressional challenger Nick Begich this spring, when he was one of two strong Republicans in the race.
A spokeswoman for the Begich campaign says he would’ve voted yes on Wednesday’s short-term spending bill had he been in Congress.
Peltola did not respond to an interview request after the vote.
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at lruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Liz here.
