Airport Alert: Congress Acts to Avert Government Shutdown; Path for Infrastructure Bill Uncertain
September 30, 2021
The Senate has just passed a "clean" stopgap bill that funds the government through December 3 without addressing the upcoming debt ceiling deadline or extending expiring highway programs. The House is expected to quickly take up and pass the continuing resolution (CR) this afternoon, thus averting a government shutdown that would have occurred this evening without last-minute Congressional action.
During Senate consideration of the CR, a number of amendments were introduced, but ultimately failed to garner the necessary support to be adopted. One amendment, introduced by Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS), would have blocked funding to enforce President Biden's recently announced COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private employers. While the amendment was not agreed to, it is likely that there will be future, similar efforts by Congressional Republicans to block vaccine mandates.
Today's efforts to fund the government are a welcome sight, preventing furloughs and delayed paychecks for employees at FAA and TSA, and extending payments to air carriers to maintain the Essential Air Service program. The CR also provides $100 million to repair or replace FAA owned buildings and equipment that was damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Ida in order to restore full air traffic navigation and surveillance capabilities. However, because the debt ceiling suspension was stripped from the CR, this leaves an increasingly contentious issue unresolved. While Republicans have been insistent that they will not support a debt ceiling suspension or increase, suggesting that Democrats address the debt ceiling in their partisan reconciliation package, Democrats have so far dismissed these demands. This means the political stare down will continue as Congress gets worryingly closer to a tentative October 18 debt ceiling deadline after which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has indicated the U.S. can no longer pay its bills.
In addition to funding the government, today, the House is scheduled to vote on the Senate-passed Infrastructure and Investment Act, better known as the bipartisan infrastructure bill (BIB). Throughout the infrastructure negotiations this summer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) promised progressives in her caucus that the BIB would not move until the Senate first passed the much larger reconciliation package. However, due to continued objections from Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) over the size and scope of the package, Democrats have been unable to agree on a way forward on reconciliation.
While Speaker Pelosi, with the help of the White House, has frantically tried to assuage concerns from progressives that reconciliation is on track, many progressives have remained steadfast that they will withhold their support for the BIB as an insurance policy against moderates reneging their support for reconciliation in the future. Even with the support of a handful of House Republicans, the BIB likely does not have the votes to pass without the support from progressives, meaning Speaker Pelosi will have to consider postponing the vote on the BIB. Importantly, even if the BIB vote is delayed or fails, this does not mean the bill is dead in the water, but rather it may be put on the backburner over the next couple of weeks while Democrats go back to the drawing board on reconciliation.
If the vote on the BIB is delayed and with it critical highway funding, lawmakers will also need to pass an extension of highway programs since they were not addressed in the CR. Transportation committee leaders have indicated they will try to extend highway funding separately by unanimous consent as a Plan B.
We will continue to monitor and provide updates on this very fluid situation.
