House passes short-term spending bill to avert a shutdown

WASHINGTON — The House on Wednesday passed a short-term spending bill to avert a government shutdown just before the November elections, pushing a bigger funding fight to the end of the year.

Speaker Mike Johnson again turned to Democrats to supply the bulk of the votes to keep federal funding flowing through Dec. 20, after conservatives in his own conference said they would not support the legislation because it would not cut spending and did not include a measure imposing new proof-of-citizenship requirements on voter registration.

The vote was 341-82, with a majority of the Republican conference voting in favor of the legislation. Johnson had brought the legislation to a vote using a special procedure to pass the bill that requires the support of two-thirds of those voting in an effort to circumvent any attempt by hard-liners to block consideration of the measure.

All Democrats present voted in support of the legislation.

“Governance by continuing resolution is not ideal,” said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., the chair of the Appropriations Committee. “Like most, my preference would be to pass full-year individual appropriations bills through regular work. We are out of time. We cannot afford a shutdown which would be greatly damaging to our national security, to critical government programs and to the American people.”

The legislation would extend current funding levels through Dec. 20 and includes $230 million in additional funding for the Secret Service in the wake of two failed assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate.

The legislation is expected to pass overwhelmingly in the Senate. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader, said Tuesday night that the Senate would take up and pass the measure mere hours after it passed the House. Lawmakers have until Monday night to get the legislation to President Joe Biden’s desk in order to avert a shutdown.

“The CR will give Congress more time to continue working on the appropriations process to fund the government before the end of the year,” Schumer said, referring to the legislation, known as a continuing resolution. “As I’ve said all year, the only way to get things done is with bipartisan support.”

Even lawmakers who were opposed to the legislation were eager to quickly cast their votes and leave Washington to return to the campaign trail. Neither chamber of Congress will return to the Capitol until after the November elections.

But they essentially punted on what is expected to be an even fiercer funding battle that will loom over the December holidays.

The outcome of the election and which party ends up controlling the White House and Congress will also influence how the House and Senate approach spending issues after the election. Senate Republicans and some of their counterparts in the House have said they would press for increases in military spending, while Democrats have pledged to fight for parity between domestic and military spending.

It is the continuation of a long-running saga that has bedeviled Johnson.

Since gaining control of the House nearly two years ago, he and his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, have been forced time and time again to rely on Democrats to provide most of the votes on bills to avert shutdowns. A significant number of conservatives in the House Republican conference are fundamentally opposed to legislation that does not mandate deep cuts to federal spending and routinely try to block such measures from even being considered.

Johnson on Tuesday called the continuing resolution “a very narrow, bare-bones CR to do only what’s absolutely necessary.”

“It would be political malpractice to shut the government down,” he said. “I think everyone understands that. And so we hope that this will get done quickly, and we get everybody back home to their districts to work into the campaign trail.”

Johnson had previously pushed for a longer-term spending deal that included legislation requiring those registering to vote to show proof of citizenship. Democrats rejected those demands, and some conservatives in the House joined with them last week to sink their own speaker’s proposal.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, an influential conservative, said he opposed the short-term funding bill because it did not contain the proof of citizenship measure that Johnson had insisted upon. He predicted that congressional leadership in December would try to saddle lawmakers with spending legislation known as an omnibus bill that lumps together all 12 appropriations measures.

“Now we’re going to have to spend a lot of time — and I will — fighting against whatever massive omnibus bill is tried to jam down our throats on Christmas,” Roy said, adding: “We shouldn’t be in this place.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2024 The New York Times Company