Speaker Mike Johnson and House GOP leaders threw in their final towel on Monday night and moved forward with a government-funding plan that will need lots of Democratic help to pass.
This sets up a House floor vote as soon as Wednesday on a continuing resolution to keep federal agencies open through Dec. 20. Then it will be up to the Senate to finish up work on the measure before next week’s shutdown deadline. More on that below.
After Johnson’s six-month continuing resolution with the SAVE Act was defeated last Wednesday, House and Senate appropriators cut a bipartisan deal over the weekend. The agreement angered GOP conservatives but means House Democrats will vote for the CR, ending any threat of a shutdown.
It also signals that there’s very likely to be an omnibus package to wrap up FY2025 spending bills hammered out in the lame-duck session post-election.
Despite the angst from the right, House GOP leaders pretended for most of Monday that they were going to go ahead with the rule despite the frustration on the right. The Rules Committee met to prepare a rule for the CR.
However, when senior Republicans finally huddled, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told us that the CR would be considered under suspension. That means the CR will need a two-thirds majority to pass. Democrats will provide the majority of those votes.
“We wasted a year. There’s no need to push these things to the brink,” complained Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.
Lots of conservative House Republicans don’t like this current plan, although party leaders, appropriators and moderates are expected to back the CR.
“I’m not voting for the CR,” House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said. “I voted for the one last week.”
Next stop: As we told you in Monday’s AM edition, there’s little interest in delaying the inevitable when it comes to final passage of the CR in the Senate.
Senate GOP leaders are already starting to make the case against dilatory objections and demands for amendment votes that would prevent fast-tracking the measure.
“I’d love to get an amendment vote on the SAVE Act, but it wouldn’t get 60 [votes] and we know it’s… a dead end in terms of consideration in the House,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune told us. “So I think our members will be looking at all of those — hopefully — factors very realistically as they think about this.”
But pressure from party leaders doesn’t always work, and any individual senator can drag out the process for several days. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Monday he hasn’t yet decided whether he’ll seek an amendment vote.
Paul said he plans to force a Senate vote this week on his balanced budget proposal — a privileged motion — but said this won’t impact whether he seeks an amendment vote as part of the CR debate.
In the meantime, Senate GOP appropriators are urging their colleagues to wait until December to push their policy priorities.
“There’s plenty of time to bring up [their] issues when we do the broader appropriations package,” said Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), the ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee.
— John Bresnahan and Andrew Desiderio
