WASHINGTON – The U.S. House passed the final six spending bills needed to avert a government shutdown and finalize funding until September, ending a series of shutdown scares that have rocked the country.
The $1.2 trillion package now heads to the Senate, where it is likely to pass late Friday or over the weekend. Government funding runs out at 12:01 a.m. Saturday morning, though the impacts of a weekend shutdown aren’t likely to be disruptive for most Americans.
More Democrats than Republicans supported the funding bill, which passed with a 286-134 vote. The minority party has repeatedly carried spending bills and funding extensions in recent months to keep the government’s doors open, underscoring not only the fractures among House Republicans but also the political realities of Democrats and Republicans splitting power in Congress.
Under no circumstances can we tolerate a government shutdown, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said at a news conference Thursday. We have a responsibility to make sure that the government is funded, and the six appropriations bills do so in a way that takes care of the health, the safety, the education and the economic well being of the American people.
The bill drew intense backlash from ultraconservative lawmakers, who have railed against almost every bipartisan deal in recent months. Those members assailed the deal passed Friday for not clearing the way for deeper spending cuts and GOP priorities on border and migrant policy.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., those conservatives said, should have threatened a government shutdown to extract conservative wins from Democrats. However, Johnson and swaths of other House Republicans have often said shutting down the government is not an option.
It’s total lack of backbone, total lack of leadership, and a total failure by Republican leadership. There’s no other way to describe it, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said Thursday on former President Donald Trump advisor Steve Bannon’s podcast, calling the bill an abomination.
Johnson also faced pushback from conservatives because GOP leaders broke their promise that lawmakers would have 72 hours to review legislation before voting on it. The spending agreement was unveiled early Thursday morning, and members ended up having a little over 30 hours to read the bill, which was 1,012 pages long.
