The continuing resolution (CR) to keep government programs funded through the end of fiscal year 2025, September 30, passed the House on March 11 by a vote of 217 – 213. Only one House Democrat supported the measure.

The funding resolution, a mixed bag for HUD affordable housing programs, now heads to the Senate for a vote as soon as March 13. With 53 Republicans in the Senate but 60 votes needed to pass the CR, votes from Democrats are needed but could be in short supply.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is urging his Senate colleagues to oppose the measure and, instead, support an alternative stopgap bill that would keep programs funded until April 11. Democrats are pushing for the ability to vote on their alternative as an amendment to the House-passed CR. Democrats, unhappy with the funding flexibility the CR provides to the Trump administration and the measure’s cuts to domestic spending, have power to wield in the process as procedural votes to even reach a vote on the CR will require their support.

Members of the House have left Washington, D.C. and are not scheduled to return until March 24. The Senate is scheduled to also be on recess the week of March 17. Any changes made to the CR by the Senate would have to be approved by the House to avoid a shutdown.

If the Senate does not pass a CR, or if the House does not pass a Senate-amended CR, a partial federal government shutdown will occur. It will be “partial” because only annually appropriated programs are impacted by a shutdown; mandatory spending such as for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, continue.

A shutdown triggers federal agency contingency plans to go into effect. These plans outline which staff and functions are essential for departments to continue during a shutdown. Non-essential staff cannot work during a shutdown. As Senator John Hickenlooper (D-CO) said about a CR, “If you shut down, [President Trump] decides who is essential. He’s the one who decides which arms of government continue, which arms get actually shut down. In a strange way, it gives him even more power.”