Fedweek

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President Trump has signed a bill to extend spending authority for federal agencies through November 21, heading off the threat of a partial government shutdown with the expiration of fiscal 2019 on Monday.

The measure will buy more time for Congress to act on appropriations bills for the new fiscal year—bills that still must be enacted, individually or as one or more packages, even though an earlier measure increased overall spending levels for both fiscal years 2020 and 2021. The House has passed 10 of the 12 regular bills and the Senate Appropriations Committee has started moving counterparts, although none have reached floor voting.

The “continuing resolution” (H.Res. 564) would generally continue current funding levels and also would temporarily reauthorize some programs that had also been set to lapse September 30. The measure further adds money to OPM, and gives it more flexibility to tap into several trust funds, to make up shortfall of funding from the loss of its security clearance investigations unit that will become part of DoD as of October 1. The Trump administration has cited the loss of income from performing those checks on behalf of other agencies as an argument in favor of completing the rest of its planned breakup of OPM.

During floor voting, the Senate rejected an amendment that would have imposed a 2 percent across the board cut.

Meanwhile, several bills introduced in response to events of the partial shutdown early this year have advanced, although there appears little to no chance of them being enacted in the short run. The House Finance Committee has passed HR-4328, to bar credit rating agencies from including adverse financial information resulting from a government shutdown in the affected consumers’ credit profiles for the duration of a shutdown plus 90 days; and the House has passed HR-2290, to encourage lenders to work with borrowers affected by a shutdown.

Earlier the Oversight and Reform Committee had passed HR-2003, to guarantee that changes in FEHB enrollment due to life events such as the birth of a child continue to be processed; and HR-2004, which would guarantee that FEDVIP and FLTCIP coverage be continued with the enrollee share of premiums accruing until the shutdown ends, ending the current policy of direct billing after several premiums have been missed by employees in unpaid status.