September 2016

Congressional leaders are close to finalizing a short-term spending measure to keep the federal government running past the expiration of the current fiscal year on September 30, but negotiations appear to be at a standstill at this point. Senate leadership and appropriators have produced a bill providing $1,067 trillion in funding that would fund the government until December 9, 2016 but negotiations on getting the bill to a Senate floor vote have stalled around funding for the Flint Michigan water crisis and a campaign finance provision.

The spending bill includes $1.1 billion in funding to combat the Zika virus and does allow Planned Parenthood clinics in Puerto Rico to access this funding, an issue which had previously been a sticking point. The bill is free of controversial environmental riders and includes funding for the Veterans Administration and Military Construction as well as a minor across-the-board funding cut of 0.5 percent to all government programs. Negotiations will continue over the weekend as Congress has just seven days to enact a government spending measure.