House Republicans muscled a stopgap funding measure to passage over Democratic opposition Tuesday, sending the Senate a bill that would stave off a partial government shutdown this weekend.
The mostly party-line 217-213 vote came after an intensive lobbying campaign by President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other top administration officials to win over a handful of GOP holdouts. With current funding set to expire Friday night, lawmakers have little time to pass a funding extension in both chambers and get it to the president’s desk for his signature without a brief partial shutdown.
Senate leaders were hoping to clear the measure for Trump’s signature by Thursday night and leave town to start their St. Patrick’s Day weeklong recess a day early. Senators would need unanimous consent to speed up the legislative process to beat the Friday deadline.
Some wavering House Republicans had complained the bill wouldn’t do enough to cut spending and would effectively extend the funding levels set during the Biden administration, while giving more money to the Pentagon.
But they ultimately voted in favor of the bill after a closing pitch Tuesday morning by Vance, who told Republicans in their conference meeting that the administration would submit a rescissions package to claw back spending deemed wasteful by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
Gamble pays off
Passage of the measure marked a significant political victory for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who has struggled to advance legislation with a razor-thin GOP majority. He decided in December to punt spending until March instead of completing full-year appropriations bills to increase his party’s leverage in a GOP-controlled Congress with a new Republican president.
That decision paid off as the end result was a nearly party-line vote on a wrapup spending package for the fiscal year, an almost unheard-of outcome, particularly with numerous hard-line conservatives in the conference.
The bill is relatively short at 99 pages, a far cry from omnibus packages that can run into the thousands of pages; it eliminates earmarks; it is “clean” of extraneous provisions except for certain health care and other programs that would otherwise expire; members had 72 hours to read it before voting; and defense would get a boost while nondefense spending would take a hit. And the bill would maintain significant flexibility for the Trump administration by removing restrictions and funding directives that were present in the fiscal 2024 spending measures.
While technically a continuing resolution simply continues current spending levels, GOP leaders inserted so many “anomalies” that the measure deviates significantly in some ways from current funding.
The bill would boost defense spending over the previous year’s level, while holding the topline below the fiscal 2025 ceiling agreed to as part of the 2023 debt limit agreement. Meanwhile nondefense spending would take a significant hit on paper, though that’s mostly achieved through cutting funds that had been earmarked for line-item member projects in the fiscal 2024 spending packages.
House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said total discretionary funding under the long-term stopgap measure is $1.658 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office pegged the defense category at $892.5 billion, a $6.2 billion or 0.7 percent increase, leaving roughly $765.5 billion for nondefense programs, a $13 billion or 1.7 percent reduction.
The House Freedom Caucus, whose members typically vote against CRs, supported the measure en masse.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who voted against the CR, drew a threat from Trump to work against his reelection next year. “He should be primaried and I will lead the charge against him,” Trump wrote of Massie on his Truth Social platform. Democratic Rep. Jared Golden of Maine also broke with his party and voted in favor of the measure.
Convincing other GOP holdouts to back the bill took some 11th-hour arm-twisting. House leaders made a significant concession Monday night by tucking into the bill a manager’s amendment to remove a provision that would have increased the number of Special Immigrant Visas available to Afghans.
Supporters of the provision have said Afghans who helped the U.S. fight the Taliban deserve protection, but critics have questioned whether Afghans are carefully vetted before being allowed to immigrate.
Democrats have denounced the CR as a “blank check” and a “power grab” by the Trump administration to spend money however it wishes. They have sought a provision to protect the congressional “power of the purse” as Trump and DOGE fire thousands of federal workers, freeze funding for some programs and gut agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., attacked the measure as a “partisan, reckless spending bill” that gives Trump too much authority and amounts to “an attack on veterans, an attack on families, an attack on seniors.”
Cole rejected that charge, saying Democrats were misrepresenting the bill’s contents.
“This bill is about keeping the government open, something my friends pride themselves on and often pat themselves on the back on,” Cole said of Democrats. “I would just urge my friends to keep the government open.”
Senate up next
Democratic objections to the bill will weigh more heavily in the Senate, where Republicans lack the votes needed to pass the measure on their own. They hold only 53 seats, while 60 votes are required for passage. And Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has signaled his opposition to the measure.
That defection means GOP leaders would need at least eight Democrats to join them to push the CR over the finish line. Most Democratic senators had taken a “wait and see” stance on the bill as they awaited the House vote.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he would bring the House’s bill to the floor ahead of the Friday deadline, and said Democrats would be to blame for a shutdown if they do not provide the votes needed to keep the lights on.
“It is on them if this happens,” Thune said. “There is a funding vehicle that is available coming over from the House of Representatives.”
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said his side would reserve judgment until the House acts.
If cleared by the Senate and signed by Trump, the continuing resolution would mark a rare instance when Congress has resorted to a full-year stopgap measure that keeps funding on autopilot, instead of enacting new, detailed appropriations bills. The Pentagon, in particular, has never operated under a full-year continuing resolution and has long resisted such an outcome, saying it would hamstring the ability to respond to new threats.
The CR tries to address that concern by including a blanket provision allowing for the start of new programs, but it’s not clear how many new programs could be funded. The measure would give the Pentagon general transfer authority of $8 billion, so defense officials could rearrange their fiscal priorities up to that level before requiring new congressional approval.
The full-year funding extension was needed because the appropriations process ground to a near halt for most of the past year in a partisan standoff over funding levels for defense and nondefense spending. Trump’s election victory in November further set back negotiations as Republicans calculated they would gain increased leverage over spending by punting decisions into the new year.
And while appropriators continued negotiating even in recent weeks, partisan tensions boiled over as the DOGE spending cuts, freezes and firings alarmed Democrats. They sought assurances in the appropriations bills that the administration would spend whatever Congress decides to appropriate. Republicans called that demand a nonstarter, saying they had no intention of restricting the authority of a fellow Republican president.
Aidan Quigley contributed to this report.
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