House passes GOP funding bill to avert government shutdown

The House of Representatives passed a stopgap bill on Tuesday to keep the government open, putting Congress on a path to avert a shutdown and setting the stage for a broader funding fight in the new year.

The Senate will next need to approve the measure. President Joe Biden is prepared to sign the bill if it is passed by the Senate, a White House official told CNN. Government funding is currently set to expire at the end of the week on Friday, November 17.

The stopgap bill passed the House on a bipartisan basis with a vote of 336 to 95 with 209 of the votes coming from Democrats — a warning sign for newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson.

The bill was opposed by 93 Republicans and two Democrats.

In the first major test of his leadership, Johnson is pursuing an unusual two-step plan that would set up two new shutdown deadlines in January and February.

If you are just reading in, catch up on the latest:

What the bill would do: The bill would extend funding until January 19 for priorities including military construction, veterans’ affairs, transportation, housing and the Energy Department. The rest of the government — anything not covered by the first step — would be funded until February 2. The proposal does not include additional aid for Israel or Ukraine.

The plan would give lawmakers more time to attempt to negotiate and pass full-year spending bills, though major partisan divisions would make that effort fraught and complicated. Johnson has argued that his plan would prevent Congress from passing a massive spending bill in December — a scenario that has played out many times before when lawmakers have faced a deadline right before the winter holidays.

President prepared to sign bill if it passes Senate: President Joe Biden is prepared to sign the House-approved government funding bill if it is passed by the Senate, a White House official said Tuesday.

“If it passes the Senate, the President will sign this continuing resolution that maintains current funding levels and has no harmful policy riders,” the official said.

Read more about the bill.

CNN’s Kristin Wilson, Annie Grayer, Lauren Fox and Arlette Saenz contributed to this report.

House Freedom Caucus member Byron Donalds, who voted against the stop-gap funding bill that passed the House on Tuesday, acknowledged that Speaker Mike Johnson is in a “tough spot."

Donalds then warned that there will be tough negotiations going forward with the Senate over funding the government for the full fiscal year.

“I wasn’t a fan of this package, but I understand the position of Speaker Johnson,” he told CNN.

“I think when it comes to supplemental packages, conferencing spending bills, you know, if I was Chuck and I was Mitch, you know, make sure you get some good rest," he added. "Because we got work to do. And we're not playing games. And that's my position."

Donalds also said that Johnson will be "just fine" when asked whether he thinks Johnson’s clean stop-gap bill, which is essentially what Rep. Kevin McCarthy did that cost him the speakership — could result in a leadership challenge.

“Members understand that he's just in a tough spot and unenviable spot so he's gonna be fine. We are going to follow him,” he said.

GOP Rep. Jodey Arrington, who chairs the House Committee on Budget and supports the clean funding bill, said that it would have been a “mistake” to lead the country into a shutdown.

“I'm not afraid of a shutdown in the right context and for the right reasons. But not when we don't have our work done,” he said, noting that Johnson had only been on the job for two weeks.

President Joe Biden is prepared to sign the House-approved government funding bill if passed by the Senate, a White House official said Tuesday.

“If it passes the Senate, the President will sign this continuing resolution that maintains current funding levels and has no harmful policy riders,” the official said. 

Beyond the pressing government funding fight, the official also called on House Republicans to abandon “extreme, partisan appropriations bills” and work with Democrats on fully-year appropriations bills. The official went on to call on Congress to pass funding for Israel, Ukraine and border security as well.

“Looking ahead, House Republicans must stop wasting time on extreme, partisan appropriations bills that break the bipartisan agreement two-thirds of them voted for and instead work quickly with Democrats on full-year appropriations bills,” the official said. “Congress must also address urgent national security and domestic needs—including funding for Israel, Ukraine, humanitarian assistance, border security, WIC, and other critical priorities that have bipartisan support.”

The House passed Speaker Mike Johnson's funding bill to avert a government shutdown.

It passed on a bipartisan basis by a vote of 336 to 95 – with 209 of the votes coming from Democrats.

The bill was opposed by 93 Republicans and two Democrats. 

Now, the Senate will need to approve the measure before Friday.

The two-step plan extends funding until January 19 for priorities including military construction, Veterans Affairs, transportation, housing and the Energy Department. The rest of the government — anything not covered by the first step — would be funded until February 2.

The proposal does not include additional aid for Israel or Ukraine.

The House of Representatives is voting on Speaker Mike Johnson's funding bill to avert a government shutdown ahead of Friday's critical deadline.

Before the vote, House Republicans appeared to be largely in agreement that the measure will pass, despite strong opposition from some conservatives.

And the House Democratic leadership signaled support for Johnson's bill in a statement ahead of the vote.

The House Democratic leadership signaled support for Speaker Mike Johnson's stop-gap bill in a statement released ahead of Tuesday's votes.

“House Democrats have repeatedly articulated that any continuing resolution must be set at the fiscal year 2023 spending level, be devoid of harmful cuts and free of extreme right-wing policy riders. The continuing resolution before the House today meets that criteria and we will support it,” the joint statement from House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and other top House Democratic leaders said.

The House is expected to vote this afternoon to pass a stopgap bill to keep the government open, putting Congress on a path to avert a shutdown and setting the stage for a broader funding fight in the new year.

If the House passes the bill, the Senate will next need to approve the measure. Government funding is currently set to expire at the end of the week on Friday, November 17.

In the first major test of his leadership, newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson is pursuing an unusual two-step plan that would set up two new shutdown deadlines in January and February.

If you are just reading in, catch up on the latest:

What the bill would do: The bill would extend funding until January 19 for priorities including military construction, veterans’ affairs, transportation, housing and the Energy Department. The rest of the government — anything not covered by the first step — would be funded until February 2. The proposal does not include additional aid for Israel or Ukraine.

The plan would give lawmakers more time to attempt to negotiate and pass full-year spending bills, though major partisan divisions would make that effort fraught and complicated. Johnson has argued that his plan would prevent Congress from passing a massive spending bill in December — a scenario that has played out many times before when lawmakers have faced a deadline right before the winter holidays.

Freedom Caucus opposes Johnson's plan: The short-term funding plan has already resulted in backlash from some conservatives, a dynamic that will force House Republican leaders to turn to Democrats for votes to pass it as the GOP holds only a narrow majority in the chamber.

The conservative House Freedom Caucus, a group of roughly 30 hardliners, has taken an official position against Johnson’s two-part government funding plan. This comes after Johnson met with the group last night, in hopes of assuaging their concerns over the bill, according to a source familiar.

A number of conservatives oppose the stopgap bill because it would not implement the deep spending cuts they have demanded. Instead, it would extend funding at current levels. As a result, it will need significant Democratic support to pass the House.

Republican leadership is bringing the bill to the House floor under a procedure known as suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority vote to pass.

Read more about the bill.

CNN’s Kristin Wilson, Annie Grayer and Lauren Fox contributed to this report.

Republican Whip John Thune, a senator from South Dakota, said he’s optimistic the House’s spending bill – if passed today – will also advance easily in the Senate “without a lot of fanfare." But he warned the Senate will still have a lot of work to do when it comes back in December. 

Assuming the Senate passes its spending bill until January and February, the Senate still has to move ahead with trying to conference the National Defense Authorization Act – a defense policy bill – with the House.

That bill has more than 60 years of history passing with bipartisan support, but the House version is full of social policy riders that Democrats in the Senate will not accept.

The Senate also has to deal with the FAA bill when it returns and will continue trying to find a way forward to provide aid to Ukraine and Israel. Republicans have insisted that any money for Ukraine will need to be paired with a robust border security package, adding a lot of uncertainty as to whether it can pass. 

Those talks over the border, Thune said, were not going well. 

“I think Democrats are going through the stages of grief and eventually they are going to get to acceptance that they are not going to get a package absent a good strong border security provision,” he said. 

GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told CNN she’s concerned about Speaker Mike Johnson’s two-step stopgap bill but signaled she would ultimately support it in order to avoid a shutdown.  

“It’s not my preferred approach, but it will avoid a government shutdown,” she told CNN of the bill.

When asked if she’d support the measure if it does pass the House, Murkowski said: “I think first steps is we have to see what the House does. Based on what I've heard this morning, it sounds like they probably have the votes to send it over. Again, it's going to be important to avoid a government shutdown and I will support that. I am a little bit worried about pushing, pushing things off until both January and February.”

The bill Johnson is putting on the floor this afternoon will extend parts of the government until January 19 and the rest of the government that’s not covered by the first step until February 2.

“I think it is almost somewhat ironic that the date of the second extension takes us to February 2, which as most people will remember is Groundhog's Day. And it kind of feels a little bit like Groundhog's Day around here as we, as we move to move these things off," Murkowski said. 

She also expressed concern that pushing the funding deadline to next year will impact Congress’ ability to pass appropriations bills for 2025. 

“We're going to be setting ourselves up for a situation where we have not finished off ‘24. ‘25 will be fast upon us and we will be two months into the new calendar year. So, it just sets up a really difficult schedule,” she said.