Government Shutdown Averted: Stopgap Measure Passed and Signed

Update March 1: President Biden signs extension into law

New deadlines to work out spending levels are March 8 and March 22, depending on the federal department or agency.

Graphic by ENR Art Dept.

Congress has again voted to avoid a partial government shutdown by approving another short stopgap spending measure—the fourth such bill since October. The extension gives it more time to work out spending differences that would carry through Sept. 30, the end of the 2024 fiscal year.

President Joe Biden signed the spending measure on March 1.

The continuing resolution, or CR, has two endpoints. For eight of the 12 individual agency appropriations bills, the new deadline is March 8; for the rest, it is March 22.

Most federal construction programs fall under the March 8 deadline, including those at the Dept. of Transportation and most of the Dept. of Energy, as well as military construction and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers civil works.

The March 22 deadline applies to such programs as General Services Administration federal buildings construction and State Dept. embassy construction.

Final congressional approval came on Feb. 29, when the Senate approved the CR by a 77-13 vote, sending it to the White House. The House had approved it earlier in the day, 320 to 99.

The congressional vote is "good news for the American people," Biden said in a statement. "But I want to be clear: this is a short-term fix—not a long-term solution. In the days ahead, Congress must do its job and pass full-year funding bills that deliver for the American people."

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in a statement before the vote, “I am really glad that we have a clear consensus that no one wants to see a government shutdown and that preventing one now will require a very short CR so we can continue making good progress on our full-year funding bills."

Congressional negotiators “are genuinely close” to an agreement on spending bills that would extend through fiscal year 2024, she said.

“I have been at the table for a long time now, pushing to make progress every single day, and we are genuinely close." Murray added. “If bipartisan cooperation prevails, I am very confident we can at long last wrap up our FY24 bills."

Story updated on March 1; Story corrected to state that eight of the 12 annual appropriations are subject to the March 8 deadline.

Tom Ichniowski has been writing about the federal government as ENR’s Washington Bureau Chief since the George H.W. Bush administration, and he has covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.

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