House passes spending bill to head off government shutdown before midterms

Measure authorizes spending until 4 December as Republicans seek to avoid volatile issue in election season

The US House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a stopgap measure to head off a government shutdown until early December, with its Republican leaders seeking to defuse a volatile issue in the run-up to the November midterm elections.

The continuing resolution authorizing government spending until 4 December passed by a vote of 220-205, roughly along party lines. It next heads to the Senate, where it will need to win bipartisan support to clear the chamber.

The government’s current spending authority expires on 30 September, but top Republicans had argued the measure’s passage was necessary to ensure that Democrats do not block government funding measures in the Senate.

They did so last year for a record 43 days in protest against the expiration of tax credits that lowered some healthcare costs, and twice again this year, to push for reforms to immigration enforcement operations after the killings of two US citizens in Minneapolis.

“Our conference refuses to let the obstruction and inaction of Senate Democrats trigger another manufactured shutdown at the end of September. That is why we are acting before a funding lapse crisis, not in response to it,” said Tom Cole, the House appropriations committee chair who spearheaded the resolution.

Earlier on Tuesday, lawmakers agreed to move forward on the stopgap measure and a budget framework paving the way for a $95bn party-line package, in a 214-211 vote roughly along party lines.

The constitution tasks Congress with authorizing government spending, and the Senate and House every year attempt to pass 12 appropriations measures granting those authorities. But lawmakers often miss those deadlines, forcing them to resort to passing continuing resolutions that extend governmental departments’ ability to operate.

While the House has passed three appropriations measures for the 2027 fiscal year beginning on 1 October, the Senate – where the top Democrat and Republican say they remain far apart in government spending talks – has approved none, nor have any advanced through committees, a key procedural step. Republican leaders ‌in the chamber said they were negotiating with Senate Democrats on their own short-term funding bill.

Rosa DeLauro, the Democratic ranking member on the House appropriations committee, denied that her party was seeking a shutdown, and called passage of a stopgap funding measure “necessary”.

However, she opposed the Republican-backed measure, calling it “hastily” conceived and noting it appropriated funds for the border patrol without “substantial reforms” to the agency that plays a major role in Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants.

“We are putting the cart before the horse by considering this legislation without understanding the full scope of what is needed to continue operations through December 4,” DeLauro said.

Should the Senate fail to pass the measure, funding negotiations will intensify from September, when Congress returns to Washington DC after spending most of August in recess with the end-of-the-month deadline to prevent a shutdown near.

Those talks could be complicated by the approaching midterm elections, in which Democrats hope they can retake control of the House and potentially the Senate, where they can only win a majority by picking up at least three seats in states that backed Trump two years ago.