The U.S. House and Senate passed continuing resolutions that will keep the government funded through the Nov. 5 election.
Utah Reps. Moore, Maloy and Owens voted in favor of the continuing resolution in the House, while Rep. Curtis was opposed. Sen. Romney voted for the resolution in the Senate, while Sen. Lee was opposed.
Utah Rep. Blake Moore has introduced legislation that would force lawmakers to vote on entitlement programs like Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.
After weeks of negotiations, the House passed a stopgap bill to avoid a government shutdown ahead of the September 30 deadline.
The continuing resolution, CR, passed in a 341-82 vote. Utah GOP Reps. Blake Moore, Celeste Maloy and Burgess Owens, and all Democrats voted in favor of the stopgap while Rep. John Curtis and other Republicans voted against it.
Hours later, the Senate advanced the measure in a 78-18 vote. Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee voted against the CR, while Sen. Mitt Romney voted in favor of it.
In separate conversations with the Deseret News before the vote, Moore and Maloy expressed their frustrations with the appropriations process.
Utah Reps. Blake Moore and Celeste Maloy react to CR
This CR, negotiated by House Speaker Mike Johnson, is a short term measure that will fund the government at current levels until Dec. 20.
“It’s fascinating to me that the House can pass over 73% of the 12 appropriations bills,” Moore, who presents Utah’s 1st District, said. “And the Senate hasn’t (passed) one.”
Moore said he was frustrated with “all of the members that are out there complaining about the CR and they’re going to use this to grandstand for a little while,” calling it “disingenuous.”
Moore, vice chair of the Republican Conference, said lawmakers need to focus on real budget issues instead of trying to “politicize the salaries of our military members.”
Rep. Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, who also voted in favor of the stopgap measure, said she would like Congress to focus on passing each spending bill separately and on time. But each year, “we’re making the same mistakes we’ve made before.”
“As a general rule, I don’t like continuing resolutions. I think it’s a failure on our part to do our job,” she said. The House’s progress, and the Senate’s lack thereof, creates problems, she said.
Spending bills “have to pass both chambers, and the other chamber wasn’t moving anything, and so we ended up right back where we’ve been before.”
Maloy noted she voted against two short-term funding bills earlier this year because they were continuing to fund the budget passed under a Democratic-controlled Congress.
“In the spring, we passed budget bills, and this is a continuation of those budget bills that I already voted for. So, this CR is a little bit different,” she said.
Now that the House and Senate have passed the stopgap bill, Maloy said doesn’t expect any hiccups between now and the shutdown deadline.
What can Congress do to stay on schedule?
Moore, who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, constantly advocates for reforming the appropriations process.
He said Congress needs to switch passing spending bills from a fiscal year to a calendar year.
“There’s really no significant origins of why this is even on a fiscal year. It’s crazy to even do it before an election,” he said, adding Congress is in a rut of getting into these “big spending fights right before the election.”
As NBC News noted, the House and Senate will adjourn next week and return after Election Day on Nov. 5.
Besides a more practical schedule, Moore advocated for the Comprehensive Congressional Budget Act, which he introduced earlier this year.
The bill approaches the budget process as a whole, taking into account complete spending as well as revenue. It simplifies the process while allowing input from the president as well as committees in Congress.
The current budgeting system’s main focus is on discretionary spending, which is the money needed for federal agencies — and their hundreds of programs — to continue functioning.
But, as the Deseret News previously reported, this is only about 45% of government spending. Entitlement programs — like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — account for more than half of federal spending. But spending on these programs doesn’t go through an approval process each year and are on autopilot. The rest of the spending — around 8% — is the interest on the mounting federal debt.
“If I had my magic wand, I would enact legislation like the Comprehensive Congressional Budget Act, and if we do that, we force a vote on all funding,” Moore said.
Contributing: Samuel Benson