The House of Representatives passed a short-term spending deal on Friday to fund the government until late November, sending the legislation to the Senate, where eyes are on Democrats to see whether they will stay united with a majority of their House colleagues.
The lower chamber passed the continuing resolution 217-212. Two Republicans voted against the CR, and one Democrat voted in favor of the bill. However, the majority of the Democratic caucus remained united against the legislation, after the continuing resolution that keeps funding levels flat failed to include healthcare concessions.
The bill keeps the government funded until Nov. 21, punting the deadline another seven weeks as appropriators continue to negotiate and work to pass all 12 appropriations bills through both chambers of Congress.
The majority of Democrats voting against the bill did not come as a surprise.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said during a press conference ahead of the vote that Democrats were a “hard no” on the continuing resolution, noting the lack of healthcare concessions in the bill. Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-CA) said the party would not “rubber stamp” a CR “that does nothing to fix the healthcare crisis [the GOP] created.”
The caucus put up a Democratic motion ahead of the CR vote that would strike the text of the Republican bill and replace it with the Democratic proposal that would keep the $30 million mutual aid fund and include an additional $90 million for House enhanced security programs, $66.5 million for the Senate sergeant-at-arms, and $140 million for the Supreme Court and federal courts. But it failed along party lines.
Unlike other recent CRs, House GOP leaders expressed more confidence that they would have the votes for the legislation, given that it was “clean” and that there was significantly less member drama. Fiscal hawks such as Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX) and Ralph Norman (R-SC), rabblerousers who have fought leadership on spending deals in the past, voted for the bill without any pushback.
A handful of Republicans were on watch during the CR vote: Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Victoria Spartz (R-IN), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Tim Burchett (R-TN), and Warren Davidson (R-OH). All had expressed that they were either hard “nos” or were undecided heading into the vote.
But there was no standoff on this vote. Only Massie and Spartz voted against the bill, and Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) was the sole Democrat to vote “yes.”
Three lawmakers did not vote for the funding bill: Reps. Adam Gray (D-CA), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA), and Jefferson Shreve (R-IN). But all three voted on an earlier Democratic motion.
Shreve filed for the congressional record that he would have been a “yes” on the bill, a spokesperson for his office told the Washington Examiner.
At the end of the vote, both Gray and Perez were seen running toward the clerk, and Perez had a card in her hand that appeared to be green, which signaled a possible “yes” vote.
Perez confirmed in a statement that she was “on the floor casting a Yes vote, but my vote was not acknowledged by the presiding officer.” She added that she supports the continuing resolution to keep the government open because failing to do so would open a “can of worms.”
“With costs already shooting through the roof for families in Southwest Washington and across our country, I could not in good conscience vote to shut our government down, which would have made health care and food even more expensive for millions of Americans while handing the executive branch even more control over the nuts and bolts of the administrative apparatus,” Perez said.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Gray for comment.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said the seven-week CR was the “right thing to do” in order to bring the House’s appropriations process back to “some semblance of regular order.” The next step, if a government shutdown is avoided, is for the House to go to conference on a three-bill minibus sent by the Senate.
“We voted to go to a conference committee to resolve the differences between those bills and keep this process going,” the speaker said. “It’s the responsible thing to do, was to keep the government open to allow a little for time for that.”
Included in the bill is a $30 million boost for member security in a law enforcement mutual aid fund and a $58 million request from the Trump administration for security increases for the executive and judicial branches. It also includes a $1 billion funding fix for the District of Columbia budget.
The security increase comes after the assassination of Charlie Kirk last week, which led several members to express concerns about their own safety, ability to hold events, and travel in their districts.
A private security pilot program for members, which was set to expire on Sept. 30, is not included in the CR. However, the House Administration Committee reappropriated funds to increase the pilot program stipend from $5,000 a month to $10,000.
Johnson told reporters ahead of the CR vote that there could be another vote on a stand-alone measure on lawmaker security funding in October. He said the $30 million and $58 million figures were a good start.
“But of course, we have many more people serving here than in these other branches, and so we’ll have to address that, probably in another measure when we return in October,” Johnson said.
The GOP’s continuing resolution now heads to the Senate. The upper chamber is expected to vote on both the Democratic proposal, which is likely to fail, and the Republican bill, whose fate is up in the air. Senate Democrats have promised that they are in lockstep with their House counterparts, but eyes will be on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to see whether he assists the GOP like he did in March.
House GOP leaders had said that, if the CR passes and is signed by President Donald Trump ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline, the chamber would be in recess until after Oct. 1 — an extra week added to the planned recess next week for Rosh Hashanah.
CHARLIE KIRK RESOLUTION VOTE PUTS HOUSE DEMOCRATS IN THE SPOTLIGHT
But Johnson said after Friday’s vote that he hasn’t made a final decision on that, signaling his members may need to return to Washington, D.C. if the upper chamber can’t pass the legislation.
“The members have a lot of work to do in their districts, as well, and so we’re always trying to balance those interests, work here and work in the district. We’ll figure that out, ” Johnson said. “But I’ll tell you, if Chuck Schumer intends to shut the government down, I don’t see an easy route out of that, and there’s going to be a lot of pain and a lot of people will suffer from that unnecessarily.”
