Temporary spending bill passes House, likely to stall in Senate

WASHINGTON — The House narrowly passed a seven-week extension of federal spending authority Friday morning, setting the stage for dueling Senate votes later Friday before a weeklong recess ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown.

The final tally in the House was 217-212, with GOP Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Victoria Spartz of Indiana voting against the bill. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine was the only Democrat to back the bill.

Democrats want to negotiate with Republicans over extending health insurance subsidies that are set to lapse. The official expiration date in current law is Dec. 31, and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., argues the time to deal with that issue is later this year, not on a temporary spending bill to keep the government open.

But the Congressional Budget Office and other independent analysts say by then it will be too late to prevent steep premium increases for millions of individuals with coverage purchased on federal and state exchanges, with insurers already setting rates and open enrollment starting Nov. 1.

“We will not support a partisan spending bill that Republicans are trying to jam down the throats of the American people that continues to gut health care,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Friday morning.

Democrats’ alternative stopgap bill would permanently extend the enhanced premium tax credits, at a $350 billion cost over a decade. Republicans argue the unlimited income caps and fraud in the current program warrants a closer look and some tighter restrictions, which will take more time to negotiate.

The GOP continuing resolution would extend fiscal 2025 spending levels through Nov. 21 though certain programs are subject to “anomalies” to prevent disruptions, such as nutrition assistance for low-income women and young children and aid to victims of natural disasters. It would also temporarily extend numerous expiring health care provisions, including increased funding for community health centers and hospitals.

Last week’s murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has been top of mind for members on both sides of the aisle. The bill would provide $88 million in security funding for executive branch officials, Supreme Court justices and members of Congress, including $30 million to reimburse local police departments for providing protection to members in their home districts.

A few members, including Republicans Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Tim Burchett of Tennessee, had petitioned GOP leaders to increase that total.

But they ended up voting for the bill after leadership expanded a pilot program for members to hire private security and promised to bolster funding in the fiscal 2026 Legislative Branch appropriations bill that House and Senate negotiators are currently working on.

Johnson also on Friday floated a potential member security supplemental package to hit the floor in October, though no decisions have been made.

House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Congress has the responsibility to fund the government. He said the ongoing bipartisan negotiations over three fiscal 2026 spending bills — Legislative Branch as well as Agriculture and Military Construction-VA — reflect real progress.

Johnson appointed conferees last week and sent the formal conference papers over to the Senate on Thursday, which senators needed to start their own process of establishing their official negotiating team.

“It’s a clean CR that keeps the lights on for the American people as we finish our work,” Cole said. “It contains no poison pills or partisan riders, it provides essential security measures for all three branches of government, and it’s a short extension, just seven weeks.”

Republicans chose a partisan route and should shoulder the blame for a potential government shutdown, House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said.

“They would rather shut down the government than sit down and talk with Democrats about lowering costs for millions of Americans,” DeLauro said during debate.

Jeffries declined to comment on how Democrats would view a shutdown in a news conference Friday morning, though he suggested his side of the aisle wouldn’t face blowback from voters.

“We are a long way from that,” he said. “But Republicans control the House, the Senate and the presidency.”

Senate votes

Once the House-passed CR reaches the Senate, that chamber will take two votes under an agreement reached between top Democrats and Republicans on Thursday night — both are destined for defeat, given the 60-vote thresholds that were agreed to.

Senators would first vote on the Democratic-written stopgap bill, which has a shorter Oct. 31 end-date and more money for member security, in addition to the permanent health care subsidies as well as a major rollback of health care cuts in this summer’s GOP reconciliation law. It would also reverse Trump administration “impoundments” of previously appropriated funds and block future unilateral funding cancellations.

The chamber will then move to a vote on the House-passed stopgap bill, which also is unlikely to pass given the 60-vote hurdle.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., provided the votes for Republicans to pass a six-month CR in March, but he was pilloried from the left and this time says he won’t let the GOP bill through without some concession on the health care subsidies issue.

Beyond Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., there don’t appear to be enough of the other Democrats who voted for cloture in March ready to buck Schumer.

Democratic Sens. Gary Peters of Michigan and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, for example, have been coy about how they would vote on the GOP proposal, but they said Republicans should come to the table on health care.

“We have time for that negotiation, and they should be there working with us,” Cortez Masto said Thursday.

Schumer has suggested that if Republican leaders negotiate with Democrats, he could allow the House-passed CR to advance, with an agreement to deal with the health care subsidies before they expire.

Both chambers will then go on recess but are set to return Sept. 29, at which time the pressure to pass the extension and avoid a government shutdown will be higher. While the Senate is expected to return, it’s not clear if the House will; leaders have been discussing a possible plan in which they would not return to increase pressure on the Senate.

“We haven’t made a final decision on that. There’s a lot of discussion about it,” Johnson said Friday. “The members have a lot of work to do in their districts as well, and so we’re always trying to balance those interests to work here and work in the district.”

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(Paul M. Krawzak and David Lerman contributed to this report.)