U.S. House Approves Bipartisan Stopgap Spending Bill; Includes RFS Provisions
Last week, the U.S. House passed a stopgap spending bill to keep the federal government funded at current levels through December 11, one month after the elections.
Notably, the bill prohibits providing financial assistance to oil refiners that were recently denied biofuel blending waivers for blending requirements under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
The Trump Administration had been working on a plan to provide financial assistance to those small refiners who were dealt a blow by the EPA when the agency denied their biofuel blending waivers under the RFS.
U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL) expects the final vote to occur next Tuesday or Wednesday, just before the government is set to run out of funding and subsequently lead to a government shutdown.
Fortunately, the bill is expected to easily pass the chamber with overwhelming bipartisan support, punting the next government spending fight to December.
Meanwhile, U.S. House Democrats are moving forward with a scaled-down COVID-19 relief package totaling approximately $2.4 trillion even though the chances of a deal before Election Day remained slim.
The White House has indicated it could support spending as much as $1.5 trillion, though many Senate Republicans have said they would not back that level of spending.
