The United States Congress on Thursday passed a short-term spending bill, the third in this fiscal year, to avert a government shutdown on Saturday as funding runs out. The bill was approved by the House of Representatives in a vote of 314 to 108 with 107 Republicans and 207 Democrats in support of the legislation, sending it to US President Joe Biden's desk to be signed.
House Speaker Republican Mike Johnson took up the bill under suspension of the rules, needing the support of two-thirds of the chamber for the legislation to be passed. In a worrisome sign for Johnson, 106 Republicans in the House opposed the bill as hard-right members of the party called for steeper spending cuts, the Guardian reported.
President Biden is expected to sign the bill as soon it reaches his desk, averting a government shutdown that would have started at 12:01 am on Saturday morning. The bill, which represents the third stopgap spending measure of this fiscal year, will extend government funding at current levels until March 1 for some government agencies and until March 8 for others.
The House vote came hours after the Senate approved the bill in a vote of 77 to 18 on Wednesday, following bipartisan negotiations. The Senate majority leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, praised the bill as a vital measure that would allow lawmakers more time to negotiate over full-year appropriations bills.
Republicans oppose high government spending
“The American people didn’t give Republicans the House to keep spending like [former Democratic House speaker] Nancy Pelosi so we can buy time to spend EVEN MORE than she did,” Congressman Chip Roy, a hard-right congressman of Texas, said on Wednesday.
Notably, the last House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was removed from his position in October in an unprecedented fashion after a faction of hard-right conservatives intigated the vote on a "motion to vacate". This unprecedented move was a significant blow to McCarthy, who had faced growing discontent within his party. The catalyst for the ouster was McCarthy's decision to cooperate with Democrats over keeping the federal government operational, rather than risking a shutdown. The decision further fueled the anger of his conservative colleagues.
Republican Congressman from Louisiana Mike Johnson, whose candidature was supported by former President Donald Trump, was elected as the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Johnson was elected by 220 to 209 votes in a bitterly divided Congress, three weeks after his predecessor was ousted from the post. Johnson’s decision to overlook hard-right members’ objections could pose a threat to his job, but Republicans have shown little appetite to relive the chaos and embarrassment that followed McCarthy’s removal.
The Democratic-majority Senate and Republican-controlled House are far behind in carrying out their basic duty of funding the government for the fiscal year that began on October 1, with lawmakers scrambling to keep the lights on to give them more time to pass a full-year bill.
What does the bill entail?
Schumer and his House Republican counterpart, Mike Johnson, early this month agreed to a $1.59 trillion discretionary spending level for the year that ends on September 30, but Democrats said the actual amount agreed is $1.66 trillion. The intense negotiations amid a $34.4 trillion national debt that is rapidly escalating and has prompted worries in part because of the heavy interest payments now being borne by the Treasury Department.
This third stopgap funding bill, known as a "continuing resolution" or "CR," would simply extend last fiscal year's spending levels until two deadlines of March 1 and March 8 for completing action of spending for various government agencies. With the temporary funding bill now on its way to enactment, the focus shifts to the need to pass the 12 bills providing the full-year budget.
(with inputs from Reuters)
