House votes to push funding fight beyond November elections
The short-term bill would keep the government open until Dec. 4, but Democrats objected over Border Patrol funding language.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
The House voted Tuesday to keep the federal government funded through Dec. 4, sending the latest shutdown deadline past the November midterm elections and into the lame-duck rush.
The short-term spending measure, called a continuing resolution, cleared the chamber 220 to 205, according to CBS News. Six Democrats joined nearly every Republican in backing it, with one Republican voting no.
The bill now heads to the Senate. Federal funding is set to lapse on Sept. 30, and lawmakers are racing the calendar as the House prepares to leave Washington for a five-week August recess. The Senate is scheduled to remain in session through the first week of August.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, cast the measure Tuesday as a no-drama extension of existing funding. According to CBS News, Johnson said the bill contains no policy traps or extra demands and only carries current funding levels forward.
Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said Monday that GOP leaders wanted to remove shutdown risk before the election season’s final stretch. He blamed the Senate for two earlier shutdowns in this Congress and said he did not want to chance another, according to CBS News.
Senate weighs its next move
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday that he plans to bring a short-term funding bill to the Senate floor before senators leave for their August break.
The South Dakota Republican also said the Senate could use a House budget resolution as the vehicle for funding the government into November, according to CBS News. The House is aiming to pass that resolution later this week.
CBS News reported that the resolution would begin the reconciliation process, which can allow Senate Republicans to advance funding measures with a simple majority and without Democratic support. Thune said he hoped that route would not be needed, citing bipartisan talks over a temporary funding deal that would last beyond the election.
The House has moved farther than the Senate on the regular spending bills. Since April, the House Appropriations Committee has approved all 12 annual appropriations measures that fund the federal government, CBS News reported. Three have passed the full House. In the Senate, none have advanced out of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Democrats object over border funding
The House Republican continuing resolution keeps funding at current levels and does not include disputed add-ons, according to the bill text and CBS News. Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, acknowledged Monday that the measure was free of controversial extras.
DeLauro still opposed it. She said the bill does not preserve language that blocked funding for Border Patrol, arguing that omission would let the Trump administration shift money from elsewhere in Customs and Border Protection to the agency.
Congress passed a bill in April funding most of the Department of Homeland Security, excluding immigration enforcement agencies, and that measure ended the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, CBS News reported.
House Democratic leaders also rejected the Republican plan before the vote. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Minority Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California said in a statement that Republicans were trying to walk away from negotiations months before a bipartisan funding deal was due.
The Democratic leaders also argued the bill would give the Trump administration more control over federal spending and would not stop money from going toward Trump’s deportation agenda, according to CBS News.
This story draws on original reporting from CBS News.