House of Representatives passes 45-day stopgap funding to likely prevent government shutdown
The House of Representatives approved a 45-day stopgap funding measure Saturday that will likely stave off the fourth partial government shutdown in a decade, after Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) dropped demands for huge spending cuts and relied on rare Democratic support for passage.
But the clock is still ticking to avoid a shutdown as hours remain before midnight Sunday’s deadline to fund the government. The measure is now in the hands of the Democratic-majority Senate and President Joe Biden to sign it into law on time.
The House voted 335-91 to pass a short-term bill known as a continuing resolution, or CR, that would increase federal disaster assistance by $16 billion and keep the government open until at least November 17. However, the measure didn’t include new funding to Ukraine that was proposed under an earlier plan.
If signed into law, the bill will narrowly spare thousands of federal workers from being furloughed and nonessential government programs from being paused.
More than 2 million active-duty and reserve military troops also face having to work without pay without a deal finalized.
“We’re going to do our job,” McCarthy said before the House vote. “We’re going to be adults in the room. And we’re going to keep government open.”
Republicans’ previous proposals failed to secure support from both Democrats and some GOP hardliners.
The holdouts contended that a CR on principle is an extension of the previous Democratically-held Congress’ priorities, and flies in the face of the House GOP majority’s vow to pass 12 individual spending bills laying out conservative priorities in the next fiscal year, Fox News reported.
One Democratic Senate aide told The Post Saturday evening that it’s unclear if the Senate would get to a vote on time, saying “the situation is very fluid.”
The Dems could approve the new CR or hold out for the Senate’s earlier proposal, which included $6 billion for Ukraine to fight the war against Russia – something many House Republicans oppose, some pols said.
“I think this may fall because Democrats in the House want a Senate CR,” Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) told Fox News.
However, another Democratic Senate aide claimed victory, alleging McCarthy “caved” at the expense of the slim majority he holds amid calls for him being ousted.
“This is 99.9% the Senate CR. McCarthy did what [Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)] has been saying from the beginning – a bipartisan bill is the only way to avoid a shutdown,” said the source.
Both chambers came to a standstill earlier Saturday as lawmakers assessed their options, some decrying the loss of Ukraine aid.
“The American people deserve better,” said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who accused his GOP colleagues of lying “every single step of the way.”
The last-minute brinkmanship came one day after 21 House Republicans joined a united bloc of Democrats to reject a one-month continuing resolution that would have allowed the government to keep operating with 30% cuts in discretionary spending for everything but defense and veterans’ agencies.
McCarthy — whose slender 4-vote majority was overwhelmed by Friday’s defections — had publicly pleaded with his caucus to support the stopgap measure, which included several provisions on border security as a sweetener for conservatives.
“Every member will have to go on record of where they stand,” McCarthy said Friday. “Are they willing to secure the border, or do they side with President Biden on an open border and vote against a measure to keep the government open?”
President Biden had pledged to veto the continuing resolution if it reached his desk.
But many of the GOP’s budget hard-liners insisted that the House should instead pass appropriations bills through regular order — as McCarthy had promised his fractious members in January, when he battled holdouts from the House Freedom Caucus in a bruising fight to vote him in as Speaker of the House.
Gov. Kathy Hochul called the looming situation a “ticking time bomb.”
“Here in New York we have almost 20,000 active duty members at risk of not being paid. They too have families to take care of,” she said Saturday during an unrelated Midtown press conference. “They are not wealthy people. They don’t have a big bank account to cover for this,” she warned.
With Post wires and Georgett Roberts