U.S. Senator Katie Britt Issues Statement on Her Vote Against Continuous Continuing Resolutions

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 18, 2024 – U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.), a member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, today released the following statement on her vote against extending Fiscal Year 2023 funding levels for the federal government into March 2024.

“Today, I voted against Senator Schumer’s continuous Continuing Resolutions. It is past time for the Senate to live up to the promise that we made to the American people and work to pass responsible appropriations bills through regular order in an open and transparent manner that includes a robust amendment process. The Senate Appropriations Committee worked diligently to markup and advance all 12 appropriations bills by the end of last July. Since then, 175 days have passed. Enough is enough. In the past 64 days, the time period since the most recent Continuing Resolution passed, Senator Schumer has not allowed a single appropriations bill to come to the floor. It is clear that he is not serious about conducting a regular-order appropriations process on the floor, and I will not vote to kick the can down the road to an omnibus. The American people deserve better than this broken federal spending process, and I will continue fighting to restore fiscal sanity and common sense to our nation’s capital,” said Senator Britt.

BACKGROUND:

Senator Britt is a co-sponsor of the Prevent Government Shutdowns Act, authored by Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.). This legislation would permanently end the practice of shutting down the federal government and disrupting critical services if Congress fails to enact spending bills by the start of the next fiscal year.

Specifically, under the bill’s provisions, if Congress does not enact all 12 appropriations on time, an automatic 14-day Continuing Resolution (CR) would be triggered and keep funding at the previous fiscal year’s levels. If there is no resolution at the end of two weeks, automatic 14-day CRs would go into effect on a rolling basis until either all appropriations bills are enacted or a long-term CR is enacted.

In addition, while the federal government is operating under the automatic CRs, members of Congress could not use any official funds for travel, must hold daily sessions on the floor (including weekends), and could not consider any other measures other than appropriations bills. 

In October, Senator Britt joined Senator Pete Ricketts (R-Nebr.) and 15 colleagues in sending a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) urging him to forgo scheduled recess periods and keep the Senate in session until members had the opportunity to debate and pass all 12 appropriations bills.

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