Last year, Congress passed legislation to temporarily fund the government through January 19, 2018.  As this article goes to press, the House approved a funding bill, but the Senate has not.

If legislation to fund the government is not enacted by midnight on January 19, most government operations will shut down at 12:01 a.m. January 20, 2018.

As noted in the January 11, 2018 Week In Review , a group of bipartisan congressional leaders and President Trump discussed coupling the funding measure with protecting the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.  A report that President Trump made derogatory comments about certain countries effectively ended those discussions.

With less than a week before the government would run out of money, Republican leaders drafted a short-term funding measure designed to attract bipartisan support.

The measure passed by the House, known as a “continuing resolution (CR)”, includes a six-year reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a two-year suspension of the medical device excise tax, a suspension of the health insurance tax (HIT) in 2019, and a two-year delay of the tax on high-value employer-sponsored health insurance, known as the “Cadillac tax,” that was scheduled to take effect in 2020.  All three tax provisions were enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act.

The bill would fund government operations through February 16, 2018.

Republican leaders have been working to obtain enough support to pass the measure.  It includes no provisions regarding DACA which prompted considerable Democratic opposition to the bill while several Republicans oppose the legislation because they are seeking additional funding for the military.

If the bill fails to attract enough votes to pass, a new measure must be drafted and approved before the government can continue normal operations.