Congress gets closer to averting shutdown

Under the agreement congressional leaders struck this week, the following measures are due March 8:

• Military construction
• Water development
• The Food and Drug Administration
• The Agriculture; Commerce; Justice; Energy; Interior; Veterans Affairs; Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Departments

The remaining measures are due March 22. These include:

• Funding financial services agencies and general government
• The legislative branch
• State and foreign operations
• The Defense; Homeland Security; Labor and Health and Human Services Departments. 

In the near-term, the continuing resolution keeps the government running and lends a small victory for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who is fighting to avoid a shutdown that would be blamed on House Republicans.

 

But it puts him on thin ice with members of his right flank, who abhor short-term spending bills and are becoming fed up with his propensity to put continuing resolutions on the floor that pass with Democratic support — as was the case Thursday.

 

Only 113 Republicans voted for the bill, compared to 207 Democrats, though slightly more than half the GOP conference voted in favor. Only two Democrats — Reps. Jake Auchincloss (Mass.) and Mike Quigley (Ill.) — voted no.

 

Thursday’s vote marked the fourth stopgap bill the chamber has cleared this Congress, and it’s the third under the Louisiana Republican’s leadership. 

 

To bypass the conservative opposition, Johnson brought the legislation to the floor under suspension of the rules, a fast-track process that requires two-thirds support for passage but eliminates the need to approve a procedural rule, which conservatives likely would have tanked.

 

The Hill’s Mychael Schnell and Aris Folley have more here.