Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014

House Joint Resolution 59 was introduced on September 10, 2013 by Rep. Harold Rogers (R, KY-5). It was referred to both the United States House Committee on Appropriations and the United States House Committee on the Budget. On September 20, 2013, the House voted in Roll Call Vote 478 to pass the bill 230-189.[5]

The Senate was expected to debate the bill during the afternoon of September 23, 2013. The Senate Democrats were expected to try to remove the language from the bill that defunds the Affordable Care Act, while Senate Republicans were expected to oppose such a move. Senator Mike Lee said on Meet the Press that Senate Republicans push to the verge of a government shutdown, but that "the government will be funded." The House cancelled a planned week of recess with the expectation that they would receive a revised version of the bill back from the Senate during that time.[6] The Senate worked on the bill from September 23 to September 27.[5] On September 27, the Senate voted in Roll Call Vote 209 54-44 to amend the bill to remove the language that defunded the Affordable Care Act. That vote was made after a vote to move forward with working on the bill, one which many Republicans voted in favor of. This maneuver allowed the Senate to vote on the bill, even with the Affordable Care Act provisions removed, in order to send the bill back to the House. The Senate Republican leadership made this decision to avoid Senate Republicans from being blamed for the, then potential, government shutdown by leaving the next move up to the House.[7] Republicans were split on the move, however, with 25 Republicans voting in favor of ending debate (thus allowed a vote on the bill) and 19 voting against it (which would prevent the Democrats from easily rewriting the bill to remove the Affordable Care Act provisions). The Republicans opposed to this were primarily led by Senator Ted Cruz. All Republicans did vote against the final passage of the law, once the Affordable Care Act provisions had been stripped out, a sign, according to Senate Minority Leader McConnell, that Republicans were unified in their opposition to the Affordable Care Act itself.[8]

That afternoon, after the bill had been passed, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that the Senate would not be working on the legislation any more, so if the House wanted to avoid a shutdown, they would have to approve the Senate version. In addition to removing the Affordable Care Act provisions, the Senate version would also only fund the government until November 15, 2013. Reid made this announcement when he closed the Senate for the weekend, to reopen at 2pm on Monday, September 30, 2013.[9]

On Saturday, September 28, 2013, the House met in order to respond to the Senate's amended version of H.J.Res 59. The debate was contentious. That afternoon, the House Republicans released the text of two amendments they planned to offer to the version of the bill they had received from the Senate.[10] One amendment would delay the implementation of the Affordable Care Act for one year, while the other amendment would repeal the 2.3% tax on medical devices. Together, they would also change the bill to fund the government through December 15, 2013, instead of November 15, 2013, as the Senate preferred. The Republican leadership set up a meeting for 8:30 pm that evening to let Republican members know about the bill and their strategy, with the expectation that the vote would happen later that evening. According to one Republican staffer, the strategy the House Republican leadership was pursuing was to get the bill passed as quickly as possible in order to do two things. First, they hoped that the speed at which the House was working and passing legislation would contrast well with the Senate's slower pace. Second, they thought that if Senator Cruz and his supporters in the Senate were unable to get the House's version passed in the Senate, they would be blamed for the government shutdown, instead of the House Republicans receiving the blame.[11]

In the very early morning on Sunday, September 29, 2013, the House voted in favor of the newly amended H.J. Res 59, sending it back to the Senate after adopting both amendments. The Senate Majority Leader announced that it was "dead" in the upper chamber and President Obama threatened to veto it.[12] This occurred approximately 48 hours before the government would have been shut down if an agreement was not reached.

The Senate responded by again removing the language about the Affordable Care Act, and passing a "clean" bill.[13]

House Republicans reported that their next attempt would be to delay the individual mandate and end the employer healthcare contribution for members of Congress and their staff.[14] The amended bill was sent to the Senate where it was tabled.[15]

No compromise occurred before the end of the day. After the failure of Congress to pass H.J.Res. 59 (or any other continuing resolution), the United States federal government shut down on October 1, 2013. The House and the Senate both continued to work on legislation that would restore funding to the government. House Republicans chose to begin writing "mini-appropriation" bills - continuing resolutions that would fund smaller pieces of the government.[16] Finally, on October 16, 2013, Congress passed the similarly-named Continuing Appropriations Act, 2014, which ended both the government shutdown and debt-ceiling crisis.[17]

Two months later, the bill became the vehicle for the compromise budget proposal of Representative Paul Ryan and Senator Patty Murray, known as the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013. On December 10, 2013, pursuant to the provisions of the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2014 calling for a joint budget conference to work on possible compromises, Representative Paul Ryan and Senator Patty Murray announced a compromise spending/budget proposal that they had agreed to. They chose to introduce the text as an amendment to H.J.Res. 59. The amendment was to completely replace the existing text of H.J.Res. 59 with the text of the "Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013."

The National Education Association (NEA) wrote an open letter to the House opposing H.J.Res 59. The NEA urged representatives to vote no because the bill "continues the devastating cuts to education set in motion by the sequester and permanently defunds the Affordable Care Act." The organization states that they may decide to use the vote on this bill in their NEA Legislative Report Card for the 113th Congress.[19]

One controversial provision of the bill was section 134, which stated that "notwithstanding any other provision of this joint resolution, there is appropriated for payment to Bonnie Englebardt Lautenberg, widow of Frank R. Lautenberg, late a Senator from New Jersey, $174,000." The non-profit organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington protested the inclusion of this in the bill, since the senator's assets in 2011 were over $57 million. The group questioned why this "death gratuity" was considered a "top funding priority."[20]