House passes GOP funding bill to avoid government shutdown

The House on Tuesday passed, 217-213, in a narrow, mostly party-line vote legislation to largely maintain current funding levels for the rest of the fiscal year in order to avert a government shutdown. 

"In a shameful display of coordinated political theater, Democrats are willing to run out the clock on funding the government in a failed attempt to block the America First agenda," Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., posted on X following the vote. "Now it’s decision time for Senate Democrats: cast a vote to keep the government open or be responsible for shutting it down."

Senate Democrats are needed to attain the 60 votes for passage. They have been generally mum on if they’d support it. Some have said they want to use the shutdown fight to push back against cuts across government spearheaded by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. 

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, derided Republicans for not including her and her colleagues in negotiations and said they should therefore not count on Democrats’ votes. 

“If House Republicans don’t think they need us when writing a bill, why should they expect us to support the bill?” Murray said on the Senate floor Tuesday. 

The Senate has until Friday to clear the House-passed bill or otherwise reach an agreement to avoid a shutdown. House Republicans canceled votes for Wednesday, suggesting they will leave town for the week after Tuesday’s votes and making it more likely that at least a short-term shutdown would occur if the Senate does not approve the House bill. 

House GOP leadership had few votes to spare with Democrats almost uniformly opposed to the continuing resolution. 

Ahead of the vote, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., announced that he would vote against it, arguing the bill largely maintains spending from the Biden administration. 

House Democrats contended the CR gives a “blank check” to Musk and cuts funding for nondefense programs and services by $13 billion from fiscal 2024 levels. Democrats have instead called for a “clean,” short-term CR to buy appropriators more time to write full-year appropriations bills that would set line-by-line funding levels across government. 

Eric Katz contributed to this report