The House on Friday passed a short-term bill to keep the government open into the new fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, but it’s likely to be rejected in the Senate as Democrats push an alternative plan.
The 217-212 House vote showed Democrats mostly united against the GOP’s stopgap plan, which they argue is inadequate because it doesn’t protect Americans from skyrocketing health care costs or check President Trump’s “lawlessness.”
Only one Democrat, Maine Rep. Jared Golden, voted with Republicans to keep the government open.
Two Republicans voted against the bill, known as a continuing resolution or CR, that extends most current spending levels and policies through Nov. 21.
The measure includes some typical CR anomalies to provide flexibility for higher spending in certain programs that affect national defense, disaster prevention and response, and food assistance, among others.
The GOP opponents were Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Victoria Spartz of Indiana.
SEE ALSO: House adopts resolution honoring Charlie Kirk; 58 Democrats vote against it
Mr. Massie argued the stopgap preserves the status quo that’s been in place since the Biden administration, since Republicans have yet to enact full-year spending bills during Mr. Trump’s second term.
Ms. Spartz opposed extending the funding deadline to just before Thanksgiving, worried GOP leaders would use the holiday to pressure members into supporting a bad deal on new spending bills.
Other Republicans argue the CR is clean, meaning free of partisan riders, so Democrats have no reason to oppose it.
“This tailored, straightforward approach is exactly what Democrats previously demanded,” House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, Oklahoma Republican, said. “Now they’re rejecting it to manufacture a partisan fight over provisions unrelated to appropriations. Let me be very clear: A shutdown would do nothing to help our work on full-year bills or support the American people.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries argued Republicans are the ones responsible for any shutdown since they control both chambers of Congress and the White House and opted not to negotiate with Democrats.
“It’s the Republicans’ shutdown,” the New York Democrat said. “We’re fighting for the health care of the American people.”
A similar partisan split is expected in the Senate when it takes up the bill later Friday, which means it would fail since 60 votes are needed to overcome a filibuster in the upper chamber.
That means at least seven Senate Democrats need to support the GOP bill. Only one, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, has said publicly he will vote for it to prevent a shutdown — even though he agrees with his party’s health care aims.
“It’s always wrong to shut our government down,” Mr. Fetterman said.
The Senate will vote first on the Democrats’ alternative plan — a vote Democrats secured by playing hardball on procedures for letting the chamber recess through the weekend and the Jewish holiday next week.
That vote is expected to fall short of the 60 needed, given GOP opposition, leading to a second vote on the Republican measure. If that fails, as expected, senators will depart Washington in a stalemate.
The Democratic stopgap is shorter; it extends current funding through only Oct. 31. Like the GOP version, it’s designed to give appropriators more time to agree on full-year bills.
The big difference is Democrats’ addition of their health care priorities. They’re proposing to roll back recent GOP-enacted cuts that keep illegal immigrants off Medicaid and permanently extend Democrats’ pandemic-era expansions of Obamacare premium tax credits that are set to expire at year’s end.
“Americans will see the glaring contrast between the Republican plan continuing the status quo of Donald Trump’s health care cuts and high costs and the Democratic plan to avoid a shutdown while lowering premiums, fixing Medicaid, and protecting funds for scientific and medical research,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said.
His reference to protecting research funds is about provisions in the bill that would restore funding to the National Institutes of Health and other programs that the White House Office of Management and Budget has frozen.
Democrats argue OMB’s moves to indefinitely withhold funds is an illegal impoundment of congressional appropriations and have added additional guardrails in their CR to protect against the Trump administration from doing so in the future.
Their measure also restores funding for public broadcasting that Republicans voted to cut in their $9 billion rescission package.
Correction: This updated story corrects the order of the two Senate votes.
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.