The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill to fund the government until Dec. 20 Wednesday, sending it to the Senate to avert a shutdown of all federal agencies at 11:59 p.m. Monday — while setting up another fiscal fight in the lame-duck session after the election and just before Christmas.
The House voted 341-82 to keep government funding at current levels for the next three months, with all “no” votes coming from Republicans.
Another 132 GOP lawmakers joined 209 Democrats to voted in favor of the measure.
The bill includes another $231 billion in funding for the US Secret Service after two assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump raised concerns about the embattled protective agency’s resources.
The funding resolution needed a two-thirds majority to pass after Republicans on the House Rules Committee blocked it from coming to the floor under typical procedures.
“Because the end of the fiscal year is upon us, and Senate Democrats failed to pass a single appropriations bill or negotiate with the House on an acceptable topline number for FY 2025, a continuing resolution is the only option that remains,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told the GOP conference in a “Dear Colleague” letter on Sunday.
“While this is not the solution any of us prefer, it is the most prudent path forward under the present circumstances,” Johnson said. “As history has taught and current polling affirms, shutting the government down less than 40 days from a fateful election would be an act of political malpractice.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) vowed Wednesday morning that the resolution would easily clear the 60-vote threshold to move legislation through the upper chamber and head to President Biden’s desk for his signature.
“The agreement we locked in last night allows for no poison pill amendments,” the Brooklyn Democrat said. “Americans can breathe easy because both sides have chosen bipartisanship.”
Schumer and Johnson had agreed in January to a topline spending level of $1.66 trillion until Sept. 30.
The White House on Tuesday committed to signing the appropriations bill into law, saying in a statement that it would “give the Congress more time to complete full-year funding bills later this year that deliver for America’s national defense, veterans, seniors, children, and working families, and address urgent needs for the American people, including for communities recovering from disaster.”
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who sits on the House Rules Committee, claimed in a hearing earlier this week that the Speaker’s move would only “set up a government funding crisis the week before Christmas” to pressure members to vote for another stopgap bill before they could head home and see their families for the holidays.
“We should fund the whole thing for a year,” Massie told his colleagues.
An earlier six-month spending measure with a bolstered provision to further prevent non-citizens from registering to vote had failed to pass the House last week, following opposition from fiscal and defense hawks including House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.).
Every federal fiscal year begins on Oct. 1, but Congress has not funded the government through the traditional method of passing 12 separate appropriations bills by that deadline since the late 1990s.
Wednesday was the House’s last day of business before members return to their home districts for the final stretch of election campaigning.
The lower chamber is due back in session Nov. 12.
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