House passes emergency bill to prevent shutdown, while major issues remain unresolved

The House of Representatives on Thursday passed its latest short-term relief measure to avoid a partial government shutdown at the end of the week, overcoming objections from right-wing Republicans to give Congress more time to resolve funding disputes problems that have persisted for months. .

The measure, initially floated by Speaker Mike Johnson, would extend funding for half of the government by one week, through March 8, and the rest by three weeks, through March 22. The Senate was expected to approve the measure as early as Thursday evening. cleaning up for President Biden and preventing a lapse in federal funding for several agencies that would otherwise begin at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

It passed by a vote of 320 to 99, with Democrats providing the majority of votes and Republicans roughly divided.

Congressional leaders cleared the way for the legislation Wednesday when they said they had reached agreement on six of 12 annual spending bills, and planned to finalize details, debate the package and ensure it passes by March 8 would be signed into law. If they don’t, they will face another partial shutdown next week.

And even if they do, lawmakers will still have to agree on the other six spending measures, and then implement them individually over the next three weeks, or face another possible shutdown.

For months, Congress has been locked in seemingly intractable spending negotiations as Republicans sought sharp cuts and conservative policy mandates refused to accept a deal with Democrats. Thursday’s vote marked the fourth time since September that lawmakers actually entered the fray and passed a stopgap bill that kept government funding at current levels.

It was also the latest example in which Mr. Johnson, who had vowed never to pass another stopgap spending bill, was forced to turn to Democrats to win passage of crucial legislation, sidestepping opposition from right-wing Republicans who refused to pass it law to allow. such measures to get votes.

Mr. Johnson said Thursday before the vote that Republicans in the House of Representatives, with its razor-thin majority and with Democratic control of the Senate and White House, were “trying to get the aircraft carrier back on real budget and spending reform.” He noted that lawmakers had tried to negotiate the spending bills separately, rather than packaging them into a single, sprawling package for an up-or-down vote — although the legislation scheduled for a vote next week would include six funding measures in one bill would bring together. .

“We have broken the omnibus fever. This is how Washington has been run for years,” Mr. Johnson said. “It was important to break it down into smaller pieces.”

Echoing comments he made personally at his conference, Mr Johnson said he was “excited” and “anxious” to “turn the page” on this year’s negotiations to fund the government, and in instead, start negotiations to finance the government for the next few years. fiscal year, which starts in October.

The text of the package of six spending bills that congressional leaders agreed to this week was expected to be released this weekend. Among the conservative victories House Republicans highlighted during a closed-door meeting Thursday was a measure that would block a move by the Department of Education that could have expanded Pell Grant access to more than a quarter of a million students . House Republicans estimate that the new FAFSA guidelines would have increased the program’s cost by $3 billion annually.

They also moved to ban the Department of Veterans Affairs from flagging veterans deemed mentally incompetent without a court order in the FBI’s gun background check database.

As negotiations dragged on, Mr Johnson had become increasingly outspoken behind closed doors about the limits of his influence at the negotiating table.

Republicans are divided over what to push for in the spending talks. Ultraconservative lawmakers who rarely support spending legislation have been the loudest voices in favor of cuts and tough policy provisions, but more mainstream and politically threatened Republicans have refused to support them. And far-right lawmakers have routinely blocked consideration of spending legislation, requiring Democratic votes to remove the bills from the House of Representatives.

“These are Republicans in the House of Representatives facing reality,” Rep. Patrick T. McHenry of North Carolina said of his colleagues.

“He is making the inevitable decision that was clear in September,” Mr. McHenry said of the speaker. “It was clear in November and December – it has been clear for months that this is the outcome.”

Hard-line conservatives who have lobbied for sharp cuts and a slew of conservative policy diktats — and rioted after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy passed a stopgap bill with the help of a bipartisan coalition — signaled their disappointment Thursday.

“Just more of the same,” Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, an influential conservative, said of the deal. “We’re not going to do anything that’s actually going to change the border.”

He added: “It’s just the swamp doing what the swamp does.”