Earlier today, both chambers of Congress took votes on versions of a continuing resolution (CR) that would postpone the lapse-of-appropriations government shutdown currently scheduled to begin with the new fiscal year on October 1. At the end of the day, there was little progress and a shutdown looked more likely than before.

At 10:45 a.m., the House passed H.R. 5371, the more-or-less “clean” CR funding the government until Friday, November 21, by an almost completely party-line vote of 217 to 212. One Democrat, Jared Golden (D-ME), voted “yes,” while two Republicans (Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Vickie Spartz (R-IN)), voted “no.” Three members missed the vote: Adam Gray (D-CA), Jefferson Shreve (R-IN), and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA).

The action then switched to the Senate, where the desire by Senators to join the House on vacation next week led to a bipartisan agreement. You see, Congress doesn’t really go on a true recess anymore and has not since the Supreme Court’s NLRB v. Canning ruling back in 2014, which said that the President could make recess appointments anytime the Senate recesses during a session – but not if the length of the recess was three days or less.

Ever since then, the Senate holds business-free pro forma sessions every three days while the members are on vacation, with at least one member coming into the chamber, banging the gavel, sitting for the Pledge and prayer, and then banging the gavel again to go back out for another three days.

In the Senate, setting that those pro forma sessions requires unanimous consent of all 100 Senators, which gave Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) some leverage this week. In exchange for Schumer and his party acquiescing to the unanimous consent agreement to set up pro forma sessions next week, Republicans agreed to a vote today on “side-by-side” CRs.

If and when the House passed H.R. 5371, the Senate would then hold two votes, each of which had to get at least 60 votes in order to pass. First was the vote on the Democratic alternative to the House-passed CR (S. 2882). Then, when that vote fell short of 60 (the roll call was 47 yeas, 45 nays), the Senate voted on the House-passed CR, H.R. 5371, which also failed, 44 yeas to 48 nays (short of the agreed-on 60). (The GOP had an absentee problem on both votes, with eight of their members AWOL versus zero Democrats, which often happens when a 60-vote threshold is in place, because not voting is the functional equivalent of being present and voting “no.” As Burgess Everett, longtime Senate press gallery member, noted: This is why the Senate never votes on Fridays.)

Thune and Schumer then both entered motion to reconsider those votes, so a re-vote on either could happen at their convenience, and Thune told reporters that he would call the re-vote on H.R. 5371 on September 29.

The two competing measures had some similarities but also some major differences. The Democratic version would run to October 31, while the Republican version would go three weeks longer than that, to November 21. The Democratic version would have included more money for security for Members of Congress, while the Republican version does not. The Democratic version has several provisions that would roll back the impoundment authority that President Trump has been exercising, which is a red-line veto issue for the White House, and the Republican version does not. And the Democratic version further extends the old COVID-era emergency health care premium assistance and the GOP version does not.

(Specific to transportation, the Republican CR only has two “anomalies” relating to transportation: sec. 156, allowing the Essential Air Service account to spend its annualized amount up front as needed to re-sign expiring EAS contracts, and sec. 157, extending the expiration date of a motor carrier safety advisory committee. The Democratic CR keeps the EAS anomaly (as sec. 163), drops the FMCSA anomaly, and adds sec. 164, extending the availability of unobligated PROTECT competitive grant money appropriated by the FY 2022 omnibus appropriations bill.)

The Senate has now left town to join the House on a week-long vacation. Leaders and senior Appropriations members can negotiate by telephone, if necessary. But based on the tone of today’s rhetoric, it’s not looking good.

The original plan was for the House and Senate to return to Washington on Monday Sept. 29. But the House Majority Leader’s office sent around a scheduling email at 1 p.m. today as follows:

Members are advised that the House is no longer expected to be in session on September 29^th and 30^th.

If Senate Democrats insist on a Schumer Shutdown of the federal government, Members should be prepared to return to DC.

Please stay tuned for future scheduling updates.

Couple that with Schumer’s much tougher rhetoric this time around than he used during the last shutdown showdown six months ago (when he voted for a year-long CR), and the odds of a lapse-of-appropriations shutdown beginning on October 1 have now crept above 50 percent, by this author’s estimate.

We anxiously await DOT’s update of its shutdown plan. The last update, dated March 12, 2025, said that a lapse-of-appropriations shutdown would furlough 17,727 DOT employees, and force an additional 27,531 employees to work without pay on the grounds that they were necessary to protect life and property or discharge some other duty called for in law. 11,741 persons would continue to work and get paid because their paycheck is drawn from source other than regular annual appropriations.