Posted on 03/11/25
| News Source: The Hill
The House on Tuesday passed a funding bill to avert an end-of-the-week government shutdown, teeing up the measure for consideration in the Senate.
The chamber cleared the continuing resolution (CR) in a largely party-line 217-213 vote, with just one Democrat — Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) — bucking his party’s leaders to back the measure. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) was the lone GOP “no” vote.
The legislation would fund the government through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, while boosting funds for defense programs and imposing cuts to nondefense funding. Current funding expires at 11:59 p.m. Friday.
“This was a big vote on the House floor, the Republicans stood together and we had one Democrat vote with us to do the right thing, and that is to fund the government,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said after the vote.
The bill now heads to the Senate, where its future hangs in the balance.
While several Senate Democrats have slammed the legislation — raising concerns about spending cuts included and instead pitching a shorter stopgap to allow more time for bipartisan negotiations on full-year bills — a number of vulnerable members are withholding judgment, weighing their concerns with the bill against the political reality of potentially forcing a shutdown.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), for his part, has walked a careful line when it comes to the politically prickly vote. Asked about the House GOP stopgap bill shortly before Tuesday’s vote in the lower chamber, he was coy.