House Republicans have released the text for the stopgap measure that would fund the government through Nov. 21 and are planning to schedule a vote before the end of the week.
Most notably, the measure, which is 91 pages, will include a $30 million supplemental funding request for members’ security, a priority for lawmakers in the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and increased rhetoric around political violence.
There’s also an additional $58 million for security requested by the White House for the Supreme Court and executive branch.
The House is set to vote on the bill by the end of this week before leaving town for a scheduled recess.
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The continuing resolution, Republicans argue, is as “clean” as it can be. It would also address the so-called “D.C. fix,” which would allow Washington’s government to spend more than $1 billion of its own funding raised through local taxes.
It notably does not include an extension to Affordable Care Act subsidies that are expected to expire at the end of the year — a major priority for Democrats.
“As much as the Democrats are trying to treat that as a September funding issue, that is a December policy issue, and that’s how the House Republicans are treating it,” a House Republican leadership source said.
Republican leadership is hoping that with this stopgap measure, appropriators can have more time to try to pass funding bills through both chambers of Congress. The chambers are already in a formal conference for three bills: Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies; Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies; and the Legislative Branch.
House Democrats are not expected to support the measure, meaning it will have to pass with only Republican votes and Speaker Mike Johnson can only lose two members’ votes. It is unclear if Senate Democrats will support it, but seven of them will need to vote for it in order to avoid a government shutdown.
“We voted ‘no’ on the same thing in March, so why wouldn’t we do it now?” Rep. Chellie Pingree, an appropriator, told NOTUS on Tuesday morning.
Democrats said Tuesday morning that their agreements with Republicans have already been broken, and that no bipartisan negotiations happened with this proposed CR.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations committee, told reporters that the House and Senate’s top appropriators — herself, House Appropriations Chair Rep. Tom Cole, Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins and Ranking Member Sen. Patty Murray — agreed last week that “there would be a bipartisan negotiation of the continuing resolution.”
DeLauro said the “four corners” agreed “that a continuing resolution had to protect Democratic priorities, health care in its broadest sense,” and that there would be no more rescissions of appropriated funds.
“Let’s deal the way we have historically with appropriations and keeping the government open — that there’s a bipartisan negotiation which gets this done, and that is what is being abrogated at the moment,” DeLauro said.
“What the hell are we talking about?” she later added. “They are not acting in good faith. Democrats are.”
In response, Cole said Republicans had a “simple” goal in mind: keep the government open.
“There’s been extensive discussions back and forth, and you know, it just keeps the government open. It’s pretty simple stuff. We’ll keep negotiating,” he told reporters.
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