Congress avoided a partial government shutdown this week by passing a short-term spending bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), through both the House and the Senate.
In a departure from precedent, lawmakers had been confronting not one but two government shutdown threats—on January 19 and February 2. Congress last passed a CR in November; the November CR was “laddered,” meaning that Congress authorized funding in two separate tranches. Numerous key programs were set to expire on January 19 if Congress did not act; the remainder were scheduled to expire on February 2.
This week’s CR reauthorized all government programs, but it, like its predecessor, is laddered with two separate expiration dates. This week’s short-term funding extension creates two new deadlines: Agriculture, Energy-Water, Military Construction-VA, and Transportation-HUD on March 1 and the rest of the federal government on March 8. This stopgap CR will allow Congress more time to negotiate and pass full-year appropriations bills.
Notable for PIA agents is the extension of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which is now funded through March 8.
More on the National Flood Insurance Program
The NFIP now remains funded through March 8, thanks to its 28th short-term extension since 2017. The NFIP’s most recent five-year reauthorization expired in 2017, and, in advance of that deadline, the 115th Congress was unable to agree on NFIP reforms, leading to a seemingly endless string of short-term extensions.
PIA supports a long-term reauthorization of the program with needed reforms, like investments in agent training, updated mapping, and a means-tested affordability program. However, Congress remains unable to agree on reforms to the program. Without comprehensive reforms, the reauthorization of the current program as-is remains a subject of fierce debate on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers of Congress.
PIA will continue to work with lawmakers to bolster support for reforming and reauthorizing the NFIP on a long-term basis.