IFPTE Requests Senate Passage of Continuing Resolution to Keep Government Open
Union Letter Also Applauds Inclusion of Emergency Appropriations to Clean Up Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in Hawaii
This week, IFPTE requested Senators vote to pass H.R. 6617, the fiscal year 2022 Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government through March 11, 2022. The bill passed the House last week with bipartisan support and 272 Representatives in favor and 162 opposing.
UPDATE:
2/17/2022 - The Senate passed the continuing resolution to fund the federal government through March 11, by a vote of 65 to 27. See how your Senators voted here.
The U.S. government has been funded on several continuing resolutions since October 1, 2021, which is the start of fiscal year 2022. While the House and Senate appropriators have made progress on an agreement to pass an omnibus appropriations bill, the federal government has been thus far been funded through continuing resolutions that maintain federal agency and program funding at last year’s levels. IFPTE’s letter reminds Senators that “Congress cannot adequately provide for all the critical federal work, necessary government services, and our national security and economic security through continuing resolutions.”
The letter also applauds the efforts of “Senator Brian Schatz and Representative Ed Case for making sure this continuing resolution includes $350 million in emergency appropriations for the Department of Defense to address drinking water contamination and comply with a Hawaii state order to remove fuel from the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility.”
As IFPTE continues to call for a proper appropriations bill for FY2022 and robust funding levels of federal agencies, programs, and services, the union also requests any such omnibus bill include language from the “House-passed Labor, HHS, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill, H.R. 4502, that makes sure individuals have a right to appeal their denied Social Security benefits before an independent administrative law judge, not a Social Security Administration staff attorney.”
Read a PDF of IFPTE’s letter to the Senate on passing a continuing resolution.