House Democrats on Wednesday passed another bill aimed at ending the partial government shutdown, but just a handful of Republicans supported it, a sign that Congress is still struggling to find a way out of the mess after nearly four weeks.
Democrats called up legislation to the floor that would reopen closed parts of the government through Feb. 8 and added another $12.1 billion in disaster aid in a bid to win over GOP votes. That aid would help several areas that were hit by hurricanes, including Puerto Rico.
But the bill attracted just six Republicans in the final vote, fewer than the number seen in other votes over the last few weeks to end the shutdown.
The bill still passed, 237-187, and if it became law, it would fund the operations of nine departments and dozens of federal agencies. But like many of the spending bills House Democrats have passed in the past two weeks, the latest measure stands little chance of consideration in the Senate, where the GOP majority remains largely united in opposition to considering any legislation that doesn’t include money for the border wall President Trump is demanding.
The bill is the second temporary funding measure introduced this week by majority Democrats, and another bill is headed for a vote Thursday that would fund lapsed government operations until Feb. 28. A bill to fund the government until only Feb. 1 failed on Tuesday, but only because Democrats brought up the measure under special rules requiring two-thirds passage rather than the typical majority required.
House Democrats have almost daily called up spending bills to fund the closed government departments and agencies, a move aimed at pressuring the GOP to cave in on the wall funding as the impact of the closures drag on and worsen.
Republicans have mostly stood behind the president and accused Democrats of refusing to negotiate a compromise, and on Wednesday, they blasted Democrats for trying to win them over with disaster funds.
“The majority is taking what was an important, likely bipartisan disaster relief appropriations bill and turned it into a partisan football,” said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., an appropriator. “I don’t know if I can fully convey how disappointed I am that the majority is seeking to play politics this important issue and use an otherwise noncontroversial disaster appropriations bill as a vehicle to pass a controversial spending bill that is going absolutely nowhere.”
But Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who represents tens of thousands of federal workers furloughed and missing paychecks due to the shutdown, told Cole “the absolute first order of business for us is to open up the government of the United States.”
The $12.1 billion in disaster relief is an increase from the GOP authored disaster spending measure that passed in December but was never signed into law due to the funding fight. The Republican-led measure provided about $7.8 billion in funding.
Cole said some of the $4 billion added on by Democrats would be used to provide nutritional assistance to Puerto Rico, which has yet to recover from the two hurricanes that struck the U.S. territory in 2017.
