SerpApi.Org
July 22 (UPI) -- House Republicans pushed through a spending bill that would fund the government through early December in an effort to avoid a shutdown just before the midterm elections.
The bill, which passed on Tuesday, is similar to what they would pass just before the Sept. 30 deadline. It passed 220-205 almost along party lines, though six Democrats in battleground districts voted for it, and one Republican voted against it.
"They've shown there's nothing they love more than a government shutdown, as tens of millions of Americans head to the polls in November," Speaker Mike Johnson. R-La., said at a press conference. "But this clean [continuing resolution] is an opportunity for both sides."
Representatives Kathy Castor, D-Fla; Henry Cuellar, D-Texas; Don Davis, D-N.C.; Jared Golden, D-Maine; Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas; and Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., voted with Republicans. One Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., voted against it.
"If the Democrats can't support this basic principle, then they alone are going to own the chaos that ensues if the government shuts down after Sept. 30th," Johnson said Tuesday.
It's not clear if it has much of a chance to pass the Senate. Republican leader Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Tuesday that he would try to get a spending bill to a vote before the five-week recess in August. But it may have to wait until lawmakers return in September.
Multiple Senate Republicans have said they do not support the House's $95 billion package and don't believe it will make it through the Senate, The Washington Post reported. It would need at least seven Democrats to pass in the nearly evenly divided chamber.
House Democratic leaders said in a statement before the vote they planned to vote against the measure because it would give President Donald Trump's administration "even more power over the federal budget and fails to block funding for Donald Trump's violent mass deportation machine."
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass, and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., said in the statement, "Their my-way-or-the-highway approach has consistently failed to address the high cost of living or meet the needs of the American people. This continuing resolution is a premature and desperate attempt by Republicans to abdicate their responsibility to govern while there are still several months left to negotiate a bipartisan agreement. We will be voting No."
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said lawmakers should focus on the 12 annual spending bills that would normally pass to fund the government instead of a stopgap measure.
"If I am going to support a continuing resolution, it needs to continue government operations, exclude any poison pills, and it must maintain Congress's constitutional authority over spending decisions," The New York Times reported DeLauro said. "At this time, the continuing resolution does not meet that standard."
The 12 spending bills are in the works in both chambers, but Republican party infighting and battles over defense spending have slowed the process.
"After Senate Democrats forced the two longest government shutdowns in American history and abandoned previously negotiated funding agreements more than once, we have every reason to act early, and every responsibility to do so," Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said.
