House Passes Bipartisan Stopgap Bill To Avert Government Shutdown

The House has successfully passed a bipartisan stopgap bill to continue funding the government and avert what seemed to have been an inevitable shutdown.

The latest vote had more Republicans, 93 to be specific, who voted against the continuing resolution (CD) than those who opposed the last clean funding bill in September. Similar to the previous bill, more Democratic lawmakers voted for the CR compared to the GOP.

House Passes Bipartisan Stopgap Bill

(Photo : Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)
The House has passed a bipartisan stopgap bill in an effort to avert a government shutdown by funding the government until next year.

There were only two Democrats who voted against the latest measure, Reps. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts and Mike Quigley of Illinois. The situation comes as the latter was the sole left-wing lawmaker who voted against the CR last September.

The bipartisan stopgap bill, which House Speaker Mike Johnson led, passed on Tuesday and potentially punts the GOP's spending fight until after the holidays. The bill will head over to the Senate, where it is expected to be sent to United States President Joe Biden's desk by Friday night, as per NBC News.

The House required a two-thirds majority to pass the latest CR. Typically, the House will vote on a rule that would pave the way for bills to be passed with a simple majority. The majority party usually passes these, but Republican leaders are using a different strategy this time due to opposition from conservative lawmakers.

Instead, They are bringing the CR to the floor "under suspension of the rules, " meaning that it would need the support of two-thirds of the chamber to pass. This change was decided upon because it was seen that there would not be enough Republican votes to pass the rule, but Democratic lawmakers were willing to support the bill itself.

The new legislation would extend government funding through mid-January and was passed with a vote of 336-95. The measure's passing comes as a victory for Johnson as he faced opposition from some of his GOP colleagues in the first consequential vote of his tenure as speaker.

Averting a Government Shutdown

The bipartisan stopgap bill would extend government funding at current levels into 2024 and give lawmakers more time to craft detailed spending bills for various issues. Some Republican lawmakers on the party's right flank argued that they were frustrated that the bill did not include the steep spending cuts and border-security measures that they wanted, according to Reuters.

Despite opposition from Republicans, some argued that they were not against Johnson himself, just the bill. Others said that the new bill was better than other options, with Republican Rep. Mike Garcia saying that a shutdown would be a far worse world to live in.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said he wanted the Senate to vote on the bill as soon as possible. He said that he had consulted with the administration and that they both agreed to support the bill if it could help avoid a government shutdown.

Johnson later said they would not have a massive omnibus spending bill right before Christmas. He added that the measure is a gift to the American people, saying it was no way to legislate, as per the New York Times.