House, Senate to Vote on Stopgap Funding Bill

House Republican leadership on Sept. 25 is expected to bring a stopgap funding bill to the floor that would extend the deadline for a government shutdown to Dec. 20.

The bill has won the approval of both the White House and Senate Democratic leadership, making it likely it will pass quickly.

It will be brought to the House floor under suspension of the rules, a parliamentary maneuver that requires a two-thirds majority to pass, but which can be quicker or easier for leadership than the regular process.

Lawmakers plan on leaving town after passing the legislation, two days early due to the anticipated Hurricane Helene.

In the past, more than 100 Republicans have voted against clean continuing resolutions that didn’t include concessions for the party. However, Democrats have historically voted almost unanimously in favor of such resolutions, giving them enough support to pass over conservatives’ objections.

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Should it pass the House, as is likely, the bill will go to the Senate.

Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has expressed opposition to the passage of any continuing resolution without the SAVE Act.

“If Republicans don’t get the SAVE Act, and every ounce of it, they should not agree to a Continuing Resolution in any way, shape, or form,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Sept. 24.

Initially, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) pushed for the passage of a six-month continuing resolution that included the SAVE Act, but 206 Democrats and 14 Republicans voted down the legislation.

Several Republican critics who opposed the bill told The Epoch Times that their “no” vote was based on general opposition to stopgap measures, arguing that the proposal had no chance of making it through the Senate or being implemented in time for the upcoming election. They called instead for more meaningful changes to Washington economic policy.

Continuing resolutions themselves are deeply unpopular with a broad swath of House Republicans, even when they include potential concessions from Democrats.

Earlier in the week, Republican leaders hoped to bring the bill to the floor under the regular rules process, as suspension of the rules is equally unpopular with many Republicans.

However, the legislation was ultimately pulled from the House Rules Committee, likely due to concerns it would fail under conservative Republicans’ objections.

At a Sept. 24 press conference, Johnson expressed regret over the need for the continuing resolution but said Republicans had no choice and blamed the Senate for failing to work on appropriations.

“We loathe [continuing resolutions] as much as anyone,” the House speaker said. “But this is the situation that the Senate Democrat leadership put us in.”

So far, the House has passed five individual spending bills, but none have been taken up by the upper chamber, which has passed no appropriations.

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), who supported the plan with the SAVE Act attached, was understanding of the position Johnson is in, but said he wouldn’t be supporting the stripped-down version of the bill.

“I think the package last week was the item,” Donalds told reporters on Sept. 23. “Unfortunately, we have 14 of our colleagues that did not agree. I felt that was the wrong judgment on their part, and it leads us to where we are right now.”

The three-month continuing resolution is likely to lose the support of several other conservative Republicans in the lower chamber, but ultimately is well-poised to be signed by the end of the week, ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline.