WASHINGTON (AP) — On the brink of a federal government shutdown, the House on Saturday swiftly approved a 45-day funding bill to keep federal agencies open as Speaker Kevin McCarthy dropped demands for steep spending cuts and relied on Democratic votes for passage to send the package to the Senate.
The new approach would leave behind aid to Ukraine, a White House priority opposed by a growing number of GOP lawmakers, but the plan would increase federal disaster assistance by $16 billion, meeting President Joe Biden’s full request. The package was approved 335-91, with most Republicans and almost all Democrats supporting. the bill.
With hours to go before the midnight deadline to fund the government, the Senate was also in for a rare weekend session and prepared to act next.
“We’re going to do our job,” McCarthy said before the House vote. “We’re going to be adults in the room. And we’re going to keep government open.”
With no deal in place before Sunday, federal workers will face furloughs, more than 2 million active-duty and reserve military troops will work without pay and programs and services that Americans rely on from coast to coast will begin to face shutdown disruptions.
The House measure would fund government at current 2023 levels for 45 days, through Nov. 17, moving closer to the bipartisan approach in the Senate. But the Senate package would have added $6 billion for Ukraine to fight the war against Russia and $6 billion for U.S. disaster relief.
Both chambers came to a standstill as lawmakers assessed their options, some decrying the loss of Ukraine aid.
“The American people deserve better,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, warning in a lengthy floor speech that “extreme” Republicans were risking shutdown.
For the House package to be approved, McCarthy, R-Calif., was forced to rely on Democrats because the speaker’s hard-right flank has said it will oppose any short-term measure, risking his job amid calls for his ouster. Republicans hold a 221-212 majority, with two vacancies.
After leaving his right-flank behind, McCarthy is almost certain to be facing a motion to try to remove from office, though it is not at all certain there would be enough votes to topple the speaker. Most Republicans backed the package Saturday while fewer than half opposed.
“If somebody wants to remove me because I want to be the adult in the room, go ahead and try,” McCarthy said of the threat to oust him. “But I think this country is too important.”
The quick pivot comes after the collapse Friday of McCarthy’s earlier plan to pass a Republican-only bill with steep spending cuts up to 30% to most government agencies that the White House and Democrats rejected as too extreme.
“Our options are slipping away every minute,” said one senior Republican, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida.
The federal government is heading straight into a shutdown that poses grave uncertainty for federal workers in states all across America and the people who depend on them — from troops to border control agents to office workers, scientists and others.
Families that rely on Head Start for children, food benefits and countless other programs large and small are confronting potential interruptions or outright closures. At the airports, Transportation Security Administration officers and air traffic controllers are expected to work without pay, but travelers could face delays in updating their U.S. passports or other travel documents.
An earlier McCarthy plan to keep the government open collapsed Friday due to opposition from a faction of 21 hard-right holdouts despite steep spending cuts of nearly 30% to many agencies and severe border security provisions.
The White House has brushed aside McCarthy’s overtures to meet with Biden after the speaker walked away from the debt deal they brokered earlier this year that set budget levels.
Catering to his hard-right flank, McCarthy had returned to the spending limits the conservatives demanded back in January as part of the deal-making to help him become the House speaker.
After Friday’s vote, McCarthy’s chief Republican critic, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, said the speaker’s bill “went down in flames as I’ve told you all week it would.”
Some of the Republican holdouts, including Gaetz, are allies of former President Donald Trump, who is Biden’s chief rival in the 2024 race. Trump has been encouraging the Republicans to fight hard for their priorities and even to “shut it down.”
Yay! We narrowly avoided a catastrophe that we ourselves caused! Go us!!
The House bill gives them a pay raise for CoLA, and doesn’t include support for Ukraine. They’d promised earlier this year that every bill would have 72 hours to be read and reviewed; they introduced this one and called for a vote minutes later. Fuck the Republicans.
Am I reading right that they got Democrats to agree to drop Ukraine money… by offering to stop withholding money from disaster relief?
Republicans are sick in the fucking head
They’re purposefully, proactively, pure evil.
Here’s another taste of how hard-liners are responding to this vote: “Every single Democrat in the House, except for one, voted for Kevin McCarthy’s ploy to continue Nancy Pelosi’s budget and Joe Biden’s policies,” said Representative Matt Rosendale of Montana. “Are we sure Hakeem Jeffries is not the speaker?”
Hilariously shitty thing to say lol.
And yet, they still only managed to kick the can a few weeks down the road.
Very brave of them to do their jobs
And ask for a raise in the process.
“We’re going to be the adults in the room.”
Responsible adults wouldn’t have let it get to this point in the first place.
Seriously. Congratulating yourself for being an adult is like a half step away from celebrating that you can use the potty when you need to.
I never believed it would happen. I’m assuming one of Nays will be coming for his throat now and calling for removal. Maybe he just gave up trying to delay the inevitable.
In other words, Qevin has 45 days to pack his shit and get out of his office.
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Can’t wait to watch this all happen again in 45 days.
Will this ridiculous yearly grandstanding ever stop?
“It’s a 45 days, 45 points, 1 point per day, we get to 45 points we’re back in business! And limo lady, we are going completely carbon neutral!!”
-Michael Scott
This is pageantry at this point right?
So lets game this out… in 45 days, can they even pass a bill of they’re still voting for a new speaker?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
[oh wait, the house did this unironically, let me laugh even harder]
HAHAHAHAHAHA 🤣😆🍆💦 HAHAHAHAHA!!
TFW keeping your job costs you your leadership position and vice versa