4 minPolitics
House passes stopgap funding bill to avert government shutdown before midterms
The House voted 370-48 to fund the federal government through Dec. 11, sending the measure to President Trump after the Senate approved it. Lawmakers acted to avoid a shutdown during campaign season, following last year's record closures.
The House voted Tuesday to fund the federal government through Dec. 11, sending a short-term spending measure to President Donald Trump’s desk and clearing the way to avoid a shutdown before the midterm elections. The bill passed 370-48, with broad bipartisan support, after the Senate had already approved it overwhelmingly. Lawmakers acted ahead of the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year, determined not to repeat the prolonged funding lapses that marked the past year.
“It gives the nation and our constituents certainty, certainty that the government will remain open, certainty that our service members will be paid,” said Rep. Tom Cole, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters before the vote that the measure would “avoid the threat of another Democratic shutdown,” and after the vote he said the House had delivered despite doubts about whether the Republican majority could overcome its internal divisions. “We’re continuing to do the grown-up thing, get the job done,” Johnson said.
The stopgap bill funds federal agencies generally at current levels through Dec. 11, giving lawmakers more time to negotiate a full-year appropriations package. That task is expected to be difficult, as Republicans are pushing for hundreds of billions of dollars in additional military spending while cutting most non-defense programs. Democrats have called that approach a non-starter and insist on parity between defense and domestic programs.
The vote comes after a record 43-day shutdown last fall, when the two parties clashed over renewing an expiring tax credit that lowers the cost of health coverage purchased through Affordable Care Act marketplaces. That was followed by a 76-day shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, which ended only after lawmakers agreed to fund much of the department but not its immigration enforcement operations. The recent impasses left lawmakers wary of another funding lapse while voters head to the polls.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the lead Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, urged her colleagues to support the measure during a closed-door meeting Tuesday morning. She said the bill was much improved from the version that passed the House earlier this summer on a mostly party-line basis. Notably, the Senate’s version prevents the Department of Homeland Security from transferring funds to the Border Patrol and delays a proposed rule that would give political appointees in the Trump administration more authority to stop federal grants for programs they view as not aligned with the president’s agenda.
Democrats have expressed concern that the administration could use the proposed regulation on grants to steer money away from Democratic-led states. DeLauro called the delay an important first step but said more must be done to block the policy from taking effect. “Whether a community receives disaster relief should not depend on who they voted for in the last election,” she said.
The measure now awaits Trump’s signature. If signed, it will keep the government open through the midterm elections and into early December, providing a temporary reprieve from the threat of another shutdown while lawmakers continue to debate a longer-term spending plan.
