Topline The House of Representatives approved an 11th hour stopgap measure to keep the federal government funded for another 45 days, with just hours left before the deadline to avert a shutdown, sending the bill to the Senate for a vote.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) argued congressional Democrats are to blame if a House … [+] stopgap measure to avert a shutdown fails.
Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Key Facts The House voted 335-91 to pass the resolution, meeting the two-thirds threshold required, with 90 Republicans and one Democrat, Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley, opposed to the measure, arguing it lacked funding for Ukraine.
The 71-page continuing resolution adds money for disaster relief, but leaves out military funding for Ukraine, a key criticism from far-right House Republicans who have called for sweeping funding cuts despite pleas from the Biden Administration for $20 billion in additional funding for Ukraine.
The House on Friday failed to pass another stopgap bill, voting 198-232 against the short-term funding measure, with 21 Republican lawmakers joining all House Democrats rejecting the plan, which would have funded the government for 30 days, though even if it had passed in the House, it was unlikely to make it through the Democratic-held Senate.
If the federal budget expires at the end of the day Saturday without a stopgap measure to temporarily avert a shutdown, a wide range of government services and functions would be suspended, including public health inspections and small business loan approvals, with the majority of National Parks closing to the public and thousands of federal employees being put on unpaid leave.
Key Background A group of far-right House Republicans, including members of the House Freedom Caucus, have disrupted the congressional procedure required to fund the federal government for the next year, demanding key cuts to federal programs, including military aid to Ukraine—making the odds of a shutdown increasingly likely. A stopgap measure proposed by members of the Freedom Caucus earlier this month that would have cut funding for all federal departments except the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense, and suspended aid to Ukraine, failed to pass. A separate bipartisan measure in the Senate, which included $6 billion in funding for Ukraine, also failed, with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) refusing to take up the legislation.
Chief Critic McCarthy—who in his nine months as House Speaker has faced repeated criticism from far-right Republicans who forced his speakership vote in January to a historic 15th round of votes—praised the House measure in a press conference Saturday morning, while attacking President Joe Biden, saying if Biden “wants to lobby against it and tell Democrats to vote against it, then the shutdown is on him.”
What To Watch For The bill now heads to the Senate, which has until the end of Saturday to approve the measure and avert a shutdown. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Saturday morning the chamber will pivot away from its own bipartisan stopgap measure and instead take up the House bill. In a closed-door meeting, McConnell reportedly tried to convince Senate Republicans against voting in favor of the House bill because it lacked funding for Ukraine, but was convinced otherwise and later expressed support publicly for the House bill, sources familiar with the meeting told NBC News.
Further Reading Government Shutdown Imminent As House Can’t Pass Short-Term Government Funding Bill (Forbes)
Government Shutdown: Here’s Everything Affected, From Federal Jobs, National Parks, Air Travel And More (Forbes)