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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, with mere hours left before a federal government shutdown, secured just enough Republicans and most of the House’s Democrats to advance a short-term stopgap funding measure that now heads to the Senate.
McCarthy, the California Republican, pushed the 45-day funding bill through the House but may have put his future leadership role again in jeopardy as his far-right flank had spoken out against a short-term solution to avoid the shutdown.
The measure now heads to the Senate for a Saturday evening vote. The upper chamber has been working on its own version that, unlike the House version, included billions in funding to aid Ukraine in its war with Russia.
Politico, writing Saturday, suggested that the bipartisan nature of the House’s passage, by a 335-91 vote, now makes Senate approval more likely, a last-minute shift that surprised much of Washington’s Capitol Hill watchers.
House Republicans had joined with Democrats Friday night to defeat another stopgap version proposed by McCarthy that would have slashed spending and imposed stricter new immigration controls.
Still, enough of a two-party alliance was found Saturday that could keep the government open for now, funding federal programs at current 2023 levels for 45 days and providing money for U.S. disaster relief.
“Knowing what transpired through the summer — the disasters in Florida, the horrendous fire in Hawaii and also disasters in California and Vermont — we will put the supplemental portion that the president asks for in disaster there, too,” McCarthy said after a closed-door Republican meeting earlier Saturday.
The House approach would leave out the Biden administration’s fresh ask for more aid to Ukraine. It does include the extension of a federal flood insurance program that had implications for house closings and FAA reauthorization.
“We’re going to do our job,” McCarthy said Saturday. “We’re going to be adults in the room. And we’re going to keep government open.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Republican of Florida, who has led a charge against the speaker, has vowed to force a vote on removing McCarthy if a “clean” short-term funding measure came to the floor. He indicated on Saturday, according to Politico, that he would need to consult with his allies about the status of a forced ouster vote, if the bridge funding moves forward.
The House is now scheduled to work the first two weeks of October and will take votes between Oct. 2-5 and again Oct. 10-13 as they work on long-term appropriations bills. It had been scheduled time off.
An expiring midnight deadline to fund the government puts everything from the Social Security COLA boost to national parks, passport issuance and food aid at risk. Stock markets
SPX,
which have risen during recent short-lived government closures, were mindful that this shutdown could impede the Federal Reserve’s efforts to fight inflation with its interest-rate lever. What’s more, without a deal in place by Sunday, federal workers will face furloughs and more than 2 million active-duty and reserve military troops will work without pay.
Read: U.S. government shutdown: Here’s how it could affect you, from food aid to getting your passport
Opinion: Government shutdown looms: Here’s how to help preserve your investment portfolio.
The Associated Press contributed.
