Congress takes midterm shutdown fight off the table |
Congress takes midterm shutdown fight off the table
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Congress funds government until December, averting pre-election shutdown
Congress funds government until December, averting pre-election shutdown
▪ House sends funding bill to Trump
▪ Markey coasts to victory over Moulton
▪ U.S. launches new Iran strikes
▪ Postal Service whistleblower issues warning
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Members of both parties came together Tuesday as the House easily approved a short-term funding measure to keep the government open into December and rule out the possibility of a shutdown battle with the midterms fast approaching.
The House passed the continuing resolution (CR) by a vote of 370-48, sending it to President Trump’s desk for his signature. The Senate previously approved the legislation by a similarly wide margin last month.
The bill will keep the federal government fully funded through Dec. 11, punting any battle over spending until the lame-duck Congress ahead of the holidays.
The Hill’s Helen Huiskes notes that passing a CR so early in the year — almost a month before government funding is set to run out on Sept. 30 — is rare. But what was clear from the votes in both chambers of Congress and across both parties is that lawmakers were eager to avoid any politically risky funding battle before voters head to the polls.
This Congress has already dealt with two record-long shutdowns, as the parties battled each other over expiring health insurance subsidies and the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies.
Democratic strategist Doug Wilson said if either party had attempted to use the CR and the current situation to push a legislative demand, they could have faced political backlash.
“With economic headwinds from the war along with a rattled bond market, both parties had no choice but to vote on a CR,” Wilson told Morning Report.
Months ago, some Republicans predicted that Democrats would reject an agreement and shut the government down to get a political boost just as voters are casting their ballots. But Democrats have been trending upward recently and seem to like their current political standing.
Their lead in the generic congressional ballot has varied over the months but currently stands at a comfortable 6 points in the Decision Desk HQ tracker.
Trump’s approval rating has continued its downward slope as inflation and gas prices remain high amid the Iran war, which has now lasted six months despite the president’s initial expectation that it would only last four to five weeks.
Republican leadership had made clear for months that they had no interest in a shutdown fight, having suffered politically in the most recent battles. Polling mostly showed during the record-long full government shutdown last fall more people blamed the GOP for the situation than did the Democrats.
With only a few of the 12 appropriations bills passed to cover government funding for the full upcoming fiscal year, a short-term measure was the only immediate option.
“When we passed our continuing resolution over here, we knew it would change when it got to the Senate,” House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said on the floor just before the vote.
“Some of those changes I actually agree with, some of them I don’t. But they don’t really change the substance of the fact, we bought the time that we need to get through the election cycle and hopefully the time that we need to get down to serious bargaining on the other side of it.”
▪ The Hill: Lame-duck agenda balloons as Congress punts priorities.
▪ The Hill: Russia sanctions bill hits House roadblocks.
DEM DEFECTIONS: A handful of Democrats broke with their party in key votes Tuesday, but a pair of defections on a rule vote is causing particular consternation in the minority caucus.
Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) crossed the aisle to vote in favor of advancing a group of Republican-backed bills, essentially bailing out Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) agenda and preventing hardline conservatives from tanking the vote series.
The rule included a GOP-supported bill to denounce socialism, a key part of the party’s messaging ahead of the midterms. Eight Democrats ultimately voted with Republicans on that resolution.
The move from Golden and Gluesemkamp Perez to support the rule blindsided House Democratic leaders, who said neither member gave a heads up about their plans. The majority party traditionally votes in favor of rules, which set up debate and a final vote on a piece of legislation, while the minority party opposes them, regardless of whether a lawmaker ultimately supports a bill.
House Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries........