The House passed the final four of the 12 necessary government funding bills on Thursday, setting the stage for a marathon vote in the Senate as a government shutdown looms in eight days.
The chamber voted 220-207 to pass the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill and 341-88 for three other appropriations bills covering the departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development. Both the DHS bill and three other bills received bipartisan support.
The top line, or total amount appropriated for the four bills, sits at around $1.2 trillion. The legislation calls for $839.2 billion for Defense, $221 billion for Labor and HHS, $102.495 billion for Transportation and HUD, and $64.4 billion for DHS.
The bills now go to the upper chamber, where senators will have to pass six appropriations bills next week. The Senate has been out on recess and is slated to come back Monday. The deadline to avoid a government shutdown is Jan. 30.
Funding for the DHS was delayed by a week as Democrats battled over how to address recent incidents involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including an officer-involved shooting that took the life of a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis.
Many Democratic lawmakers have called for a complete defunding of ICE, while centrists have kept their opinions on the subject muted. Democratic leaders have said they think ICE is “lawless” and there should be significant restrictions on its operations but have not gone so far as to call for defunding the agency.
Democrats secured a $115 million funding reduction for ICE operations. GOP appropriators also agreed to reduce the number of detention beds in migrant holding facilities by 5,500 and earmark $20 million to equip ICE officers with body cameras.
But House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-CA) told the caucus they would vote against the DHS bill because it “doesn’t do enough” to address their problems with ICE.
House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), who originally said the DHS legislation was the best-case scenario to avoid a government shutdown, said she was a no on the bill on the floor.
“It’s clear more must be done,” she said during debate. “ICE believes it can act with impunity and is behaving accordingly. … I have made my own determination and that determination leads me to a no vote on this bill.”
Seven Democrats voted for the DHS bill, including Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Don Davis (D-NC), Jared Golden (D-ME), Laura Gillen (D-NY), Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA), and Tom Suozzi (D-NY). One Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), voted against it.
Jeffries brushed off concerns regarding some in the Democratic caucus breaking with leadership to vote for the funding bill, saying, “You’re never going to achieve unanimity on every single issue” if a democracy is “functioning the right way.”
“You get unanimity when you have a cult, and that’s what we have on the other side: cult-like behavior,” Jeffries said. “But we’re not a cult, as Democrats, we’re a coalition.”
A handful of Republicans withheld their votes on the procedural measure to advance the appropriations bills earlier on Thursday, negotiating with House GOP leadership on the chamber floor as the vote dragged on.
Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Victoria Spartz (R-IN) initially voted against bringing the legislation to the floor before ultimately flipping. Other holdouts included fiscal hawks such as Harris and Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN), as well as centrist lawmakers such as Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA). Nunn was among several midwestern Republicans who wanted a concrete path forward on year-round sales of 15% ethanol, or E15.
By bringing the legislation to the floor, GOP leaders agreed to establish an E15 Rural Domestic Energy Council, of which Reps. Stephanie Bice (R-OK) and Randy Feenstra (R-IA) will chair. The council is a compromise between Johnson and the midwesterners, who pushed for a floor-vote amendment to include year-round E15 sales in the appropriations bills.
“We look forward to advancing a solution by February 25th — before the start of growing season — with President Trump’s support to bolster domestic energy production, strengthen Rural America, and keep reducing gas prices,” Bice and Feenstra said in a statement.
To get conservatives on board, House leaders allowed for two amendments on the floor. Both amendments failed.
Republican attendance was also a problem for Johnson, with Reps. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY) were among those who did not show up to vote on Thursday. Reps. Steve Womack (R-AR), whose wife died earlier this week, and Jim Baird (R-IN), who suffered severe injuries in a car crash, were both in town this week for votes despite the tragedies.
Johnson eventually had to call Hunt to return to Washington for the final passage vote. A source familiar told the Washington Examiner Hunt did not get any indication he needed to return until Johnson was the “very first person” to tell him “that he was needed in D.C.”
“After their phone call, Rep. Hunt immediately departed for the airport to head to D.C.,” the source said.
A spokeswoman for House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) said the whip did “not tell Rep. Hunt to stay in Texas.”
HOUSE ADVANCES GOVERNMENT FUNDING BILLS AS JOHNSON APPEASES GOP FACTIONS
“The whip has made it abundantly clear to the GOP conference that unless there is a life or death situation, we need all members here for votes,” the spokeswoman said.
Hunt ultimately missed the appropriations votes, but he arrived in time to cast a vote and tie the war powers resolution on Venezuela, which caused it to fail. He left the Capitol without answering questions from reporters on his absence.
