WASHINGTON — The House and Senate passed bipartisan legislation Wednesday to fund the government until just before Christmas, despite opposition from some Northwest Republicans to the short-term spending bill that averts a potential government shutdown at the end of the month.
Congressional leaders, including Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the Democratic chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced on Sunday that they had struck a deal to keep the government funded. The legislation maintains current spending levels, with the exception of the Secret Service, which gets an extra $231 million after two assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump called attention to the agency’s limited resources.
“I am very pleased we have a straightforward, bipartisan compromise to fund the government and avoid a pointless, devastating shutdown,” Murray said on the Senate floor before the vote.
Referring to a GOP effort to attach the funding bill to separate legislation that would require proof of citizenship to vote, she added, “It is getting a little exhausting to watch some House Republicans push again and again for the most extreme partisan cuts and policies — stuff that is not realistic at all — before learning the same lessons the hard way yet again.”
Democrats rejected that measure — which was prompted by Trump’s unproven claim that unauthorized immigrants will influence November’s election — pointing out that it’s already illegal for non-citizens to vote in all federal and state elections.
House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and his fellow Republican leaders in the lower chamber, not eager to anger voters by cutting off government funding just weeks before Election Day, dropped the noncitizen voting ban from the House bill. But with right-wing opposition in the Rules Committee, Johnson was forced to use a procedural move that requires Democratic support to reach a two-thirds majority and pass the bill.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Seattle Democrat who leads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in a statement, “Today the GOP majority in the House of Representatives was bailed out by Democrats, as we voted to keep our government from shutting down.”
The bill passed the House by a vote of 341-82, with all Democrats who were present and 132 Republicans voting in favor, while 82 GOP lawmakers voted “no.” In the Senate, it passed 78-18, with only a minority of the chamber’s 49 Republicans opposed.
The legislation extends government funding until Dec. 20, setting up what has become a near-perennial showdown over the package of appropriations bills Congress must pass each year, with the threat of having to spend Christmas at the Capitol providing a powerful incentive to get a deal done.
Eighteen GOP senators opposed the short-term spending approach, including Mike Crapo and Jim Risch of Idaho. Crapo, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said the so-called continuing resolution, or “CR,” represents the failure of lawmakers to stay on schedule and pass the spending bills before the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.
“This CR is yet another failure to follow our annual budget and appropriations process,” Crapo said in a statement. “The Senate Appropriations Committee has already advanced all 12 individual appropriations bills and there is no reason the Senate should not have taken these up for a vote before now. We have to stop with the bandaids on our growing fiscal crisis.”
In recent years, Congress has routinely failed to pass the appropriations package on time, often postponing votes on that legislation until December, then passing bills that increase the budget deficit. Neither party has made a serious effort to reduce the nation’s $35.3 trillion debt when in power, with Republicans unwilling to raise taxes and Democrats largely opposed to spending reductions.
Few lawmakers in either party like short-term funding bills, since they don’t allow Congress to adapt spending to changing conditions and needs, but the alternative — effectively closing parts of the government until a final bill is passed — isn’t popular either. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Spokane, was a reluctant vote in favor of the stopgap measure.
“Despite being deeply disappointed that we find ourselves in this situation again, I voted for the short-term funding bill because a government shutdown would do nothing to help the American people,” she said in a statement. “It’s well-past time Congress get serious about fixing this broken process and put an end the cycle of continuing resolutions.”
Rep. Russ Fulcher, a Republican who represents North Idaho and areas west of Boise, cited similar objections to the process but voted against the bill.
“A continuing resolution that fails to go through regular order, fails to address the federal government’s reckless spending, fails to protect the integrity of our elections, and fails to prevent a massive end-of-year spending package in the form of a Christmas omnibus does not serve my constituents,” he said in a statement. “The American people are fed up dealing with the consequences of Washington, D.C.’s broken budget process which has contributed to high inflation and a staggering debt of $35 trillion.”
Rep. Mike Simpson, a Republican who represents most of Boise and eastern Idaho, is a member of the House Appropriations Committee and voted for the bill Wednesday, while pledging to keep working to pass a full-year funding package.
“Government shutdowns are bad policy, politics, and should never be used as a way to govern,” he said in a statement. “Shutting down the government halts essential services, impacts veterans, and affects the pay of our brave men and women in uniform and border patrol agents.”
Rep. Dan Newhouse, a Republican from Sunnyside and another member of the Appropriations Committee, said that although he would rather pass spending bills on time, he voted for the short-term spending bill because “government shutdowns cost American families billions of dollars we don’t have, hurt our economy, and raise our national debt.”
“As a fiscal conservative, that is simply not an option I can support,” Newhouse said in a statement, noting that the stopgap bill maintains important funding for veterans, agricultural producers and national security.”
This CR maintains the wins we made in cutting the Biden-Harris Administration’s bloated spending levels and socialist programs, while avoiding reductions to national security, sustaining our fully funded veterans care, and preserving critical funding for agricultural producers and rural communities.”
By passing the spending bill on Wednesday, lawmakers enabled themselves to end their week early and go home. President Joe Biden will sign it, and Congress won’t reconvene until after the election.
