Just 36 hours before the end of fiscal year 2016 (FY16), Congress passed and the President signed H.R. 5325, a continuing resolution (CR) extending the existing FY16 appropriations through December 9. The bill, which passed the House by a vote of 342 to 85 and the Senate 72 to 26, avoids an October government shutdown, instead pushing the debate over fiscal year 2017 (FY17) appropriations until after the November 8 election. As "must pass" legislation, the CR served as a proxy for a number of ongoing fights, including the response to the Zika crisis and opioid epidemic, funding for lead abatement in Flint, Michigan, and the response to recent flooding in Louisiana.
A wide majority of both House Republicans and Democrats voted for the CR. All but ten Democrats voted in favor of the legislation, while Republicans were split 170 to 75. That was a notable shift from last year's House CR vote, when the House Republicans voted 91 to 151 against the FY16 measure.
Takeaway: Adoption of the CR pushes the contentious fight over appropriations until after the November 8 election, allowing members of Congress to spend all of October and the first week of November focused on their reelection campaigns.
