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After months of infighting and delay, the House finally passed a national security supplemental aid package to support our global allies, partners, and innocent civilians impacted by international conflicts around the world. Extreme members of Speaker Johnson’s conference nearly defeated a procedural vote that would have blocked the bills from the floor; however, House Democrats delivered the necessary votes to advance them.

Despite pressing national security and humanitarian issues facing the United States across the world and a key tool in collecting intelligence concerning foreign terrorism set to expire on April 19th, the House returned from a two-week recess last week to consider a slate of Republican messaging bills. For the seventh time this Congres.

Tomorrow, Congress returns from a two week recess this week after finally passing a Fiscal Year 2024 budget, which President Biden recently signed into law.

After nearly six months of negotiations and looming government shutdowns, Congress finally passed all twelve appropriations bills to fully fund the government through Fiscal Year 2024! Without surprise, it was a chaotic process to get them passed in both chambers and sent to President Biden’s desk. Republicans’ clear inability to govern brought us to the brink of a government shutdown five times, and we narrowly averted a shutdown over the weekend. 

Welcome to another week in which we are facing a partial government shutdown. This Friday, funding for roughly three-quarters of all federal discretionary spending expires. Last night, budget negotiators announced a deal on the remaining six appropriations bills for Fiscal Year 2024. Republicans have been adamant they need 72 hours to review any bill text, which means there is still a chance we need another stopgap spending measure while legislative aides race to finalize bill text, or vote over the weekend.

Stay tuned...

It was an exciting and busy week that marked my one-year anniversary as your Congresswoman, the President’s State of the Union Address, and the passage of a fiscal year 2024 funding bill covering half the appropriations bills needed to keep the government up and running. We have 11 days to pass legislation to fund the rest before another partial shutdown deadline. And President Biden will introduce his fiscal year 2025 budget today.

In the meantime, here is what you may have missed last week.

Last week we closed out Black History Month and began Women’s History Month during a busy week in Washington and the District. I celebrated state and local leaders in the District with my first Black History Month Coffee and joined Rep. Bobby Scott (VA-03) and Senators Warner and Kaine to recognize Black leaders from across Virginia at the Commonwealth Coffee.

We are less than four days away from a partial government shutdown when about 20% of federal agencies’ funding will expire on March 1st. The remaining 80% of federal government agencies will run out of funding on March 8th.