The House passed a stop-gap government funding bill to avert a shutdown deadline in just over 24 hours despite strong opposition from hardline conservatives.
The continuing resolution, or CR, funds the government at fiscal year 2023 levels set under House Speaker Nancy Pelosi through March 1 for four agencies and March 8 for the other eight. The measure passed 314-108 with Democrats joining Republicans to get it across the finish line.
The so-called ‘laddered’ approach is meant to prompt lawmakers to pass 12 separate bills to fund each agency of government rather than one big omnibus.
Right-wing Freedom Caucus hardliners had tried to force Speaker Mike Johnson to attach H.R. 2, Republicans’ hardline border bill, to the deal – which would have thrown the government into a shutdown.
Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good, R-Va., said he is furious with the speaker for passing a CR with no border provisions and threatened to tank other Republican-led bills in the future.
The hardliners even suggested they would rather plunge the government into shutdown in order to demand border security provisions.
Right-wing Freedom Caucus hardliners had tried to force Speaker Mike Johnson to attach H.R. 2, Republicans’s border bill
‘It is GROUNDHOG DAY in the House chamber – all the time, every day. Yet again, spending money we don’t have!’ lamented Chip Roy in a bid to urge his colleagues to vote ‘no’ on the CR.
But Johnson resisted, instead relying on Democratic votes to make up for GOP defectors as a snowstorm barrels toward D.C. and lawmakers are gunning to get out of town.
The Senate had passed the continuing resolution earlier in a 77 to 18 vote.
The CR will keep the government fully funded through at least March 1, giving lawmakers time to hash out deals on 12 individual appropriations bills to fund each agency of government.
The original deadline to pass bills to fund the government for fiscal year 2024 was September 30. Since then, there have been two CRs passed which keep federal funding levels at the same rate set at the end of 2022.
And after extending the funding deadline to under two months from now, the House will go on a week-long recess next week.
‘The House is only going to be in session two days this week, why?’ Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., wrote on X.
‘It is GROUNDHOG DAY in the House chamber – all the time, every day. Yet again, spending money we don’t have!’ lamented Chip Roy
Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good, R-Va., was furious with the speaker for passing a CR with no border riders and threatened to thwart future priority legislation for Republicans by tanking rule votes
‘So the D.C. Cartel can force a continuation of Biden and Pelosi’s policies through Congress while members are smelling jet fumes. I stand firm in my commitment, shut down the border or shut down the government!’
‘Americans did not give Republicans a majority in the House to continue Nancy Pelosi’s inflationary spending and Joe Biden’s failed policies,’ the Freedom Caucus said in a statement, urging its some 50 members to vote no on the deal.
‘Unfortunately, that’s precisely what has been proposed in order to buy time – incredibly – to pass full-year appropriations that increase Pelosi’s spending level and likely preserve Biden’s policies. This is not what we promised the American people.’