US House Clears Spending Stopgap Backed by Trump That Averts Government Shutdown

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House approved a short-term government funding bill Tuesday that would avoid a shutdown this fall once President Donald Trump signs it.

The 370-48 vote showed neither Republicans nor Democrats want a repeat of the funding lapse that took place last year when disagreement over enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits led to a historic 43-day shutdown.

The stopgap spending bill, which the Senate approved in early August, would provide mostly flat funding for federal departments and agencies to keep up and running from the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1 through Dec. 11.

The short-term funding patch is supposed to give Congress more time to reach bipartisan agreement on the dozen annual appropriations bills. Absent that, lawmakers can pass a series of stopgap spending bills or force another government shutdown.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said during floor debate the bill doesn’t include any “poison pills” or “partisan riders.”

“The bill before us is a clean, narrowly tailored continuing resolution that keeps the government open and operating. Nothing more. Nothing less,” he said. “It gives the nation and our constituents certainty.”

The measure, Cole said, would “allow Congress time to get past the November elections and allow us time to assess and move forward with further appropriations measures in November and December.”

Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, ranking member on the committee, said the bill doesn’t include any additional funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and would block the administration from moving any of the money to the Border Patrol.

Republicans in Congress approved a $70 billion package earlier this year intended to fund ICE and the Border Patrol for the next three years. That funding was on top of the roughly $170 billion for immigration enforcement included in the GOP’s “big, beautiful” law.

“We will not support a single cent in further funding without substantial reforms to protect our communities from abuse,” DeLauro said during debate.

The stopgap spending bill, she said, “is in no way a substitute for the full-year funding process. It is merely a means to complete this important work while averting a lapse in government funding.”

Senate action

Senators voted 96-0 to approve the spending measure in early August after making changes to a bill the House passed in late July.

The White House indicated last month that Trump plans to sign the bill when it reaches his desk, writing in a Statement of Administration Policy that the president “strongly opposes another futile Government shutdown.”

“Every Member of Congress should support passage of this CR to keep the Government open as discussions on full-year appropriations continue,” it said.

The current version of the legislation “closes the loophole that would have allowed the Trump administration to transfer funding for other programs to Border Patrol” and “extends authorizations of important health, veterans, infrastructure, and other programs,” according to a summary from Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash.

Rule on grantmaking blocked

The bill also blocks the White House budget office from moving forward during the next few months with a rule that would give political appointees more influence over grants.

Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, wrote in a letter released in early July that “rule would impose new, burdensome requirements on award recipients that would harm small and rural communities, undermine scientific and biomedical research, and conflict with Congress’ control over the federal funding process.”

Democrats in Congress also oppose the proposed rule, arguing it “will make it impossible for grant recipients to faithfully carry out the funding priorities that Congress establishes in statute, and would turn federal grants into a new cudgel for the President to unilaterally advance his partisan agenda and punish political rivals.”

by Jennifer Shutt, Virginia Mercury

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