WASHINGTON – House Republicans narrowly passed a suspension bill on Tuesday to fund the government, putting moderate Senate Democrats in a tough spot to either take final approval action or endanger partial government shutdowns in three days.
Lawmakers voted 217-213 on the 2025 Short-term Fiscal Year Expense Bill known as “Continuous Resolution” or CR to avoid government shutdowns at 11:59pm on Friday.
Rep. Thomas Massey (r-ky.) and 212 Democrats opposed the measure, leaning towards libertarians. Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) joined 216 Republicans to support the bill.
With 53 Republicans in the Senate, at least seven Democrats must cross the aisle to break the filibuster and send the bill to President Trump's desk for signing. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY.) complicates what Mathematics says he votes against CR.
Massey became the first house goper to oppose the resolution on Sunday, but lawmakers from fierce right-wing MP Tim Burchett (R-Ten) to centralist Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) remained undecided as votes were approaching.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA.) and GOP budgeters have created a short-term solution spending patch with Trump's approval to maintain government lighting until September 30th.
The GOP first cuts the House of Representatives in January 2023, so Republicans were unable to pass the CR without democratic support.
“This is the bottom line,” Johnson said at a press conference Tuesday. “If Congressional Democrats refuse to support this clean CR, they will be responsible for all troops that miss pay, all flight delays due to reduced staffing at the TSA, and all negative consequences resulting from shutting down the government.”
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and other Democrats argue that funding doesn't “protect” federal benefits programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, benefiting from veterans and “child and family nutrition assistance.”
In the past, Hardline Republicans voted against the CRS, forced party leaders, and relied on Democrats to put the bill on top. With 218 Republicans and 214 Democrats currently in the house, the GOP can afford to lose one vote if they have full attendance.
Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), a critic of the CRS, is the most conservative Republican caucus in the House, and released a full support statement on Tuesday's Press.
“This is my first ongoing resolution in 14 years, and in fact I will reduce my spending from the previous year, fund the military, fund veterans, and fund programs for women and infant children,” Harris said.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) pointed out that in fact, the stopgap to “increase spending” for veterans and nutrition support programs includes $500 million for Special Supplementary Nutrition Programs (WIC) for Women, Infants and Children.
“They have reading problems,” Johnson declared his Democratic colleague, “they are trying to carry out one of the most shameful misinformation campaigns we have seen in our lives.”
The bill's provisions also increase defense spending by $6 billion while reducing $13 billion in non-defensive spending totaling $1.66 trillion in fiscal year 2024.
As part of that, Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) will receive nearly $10 billion more than its previous year's spend to carry out Trump's massive deportation operation.
House GOP senior aide told reporters on a call Saturday. This cuts down target hors and “side deals” of non-defensive spending, mediated by former House President Joe Biden (R-Calif), former President Joe Biden's Chuck Schumer (D-NY) president Joe McCarthy (R-Calif), and former President Joe McCarthy (R-Calif) during the debt cap battle.
Vice President JD Vance accused Johnson's predecessor of cutting “bad deals” amid the 2023 Fiscal Liability Act, which led to the passing of Fracas to raise the country's debt restrictions during a closed-type meeting with House Republicans on Tuesday morning.
Vance also urged House GOP lawmakers to “jamm” the Senate with a fundraising bill and force Democrats to vote tougher, sources added.
Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) followed the private session, in his posting Vance's message was characterized as “a first down, keep the ball and keep the ball on the field.”
If moderate Senate Democrats don't back the CR, Meuser added, “close the government.”
One of those centralists, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), calls CR “awful,” but he hasn't necessarily struggled to oppose it.
“We are striving desperately to keep the government open, but we are trying not to make plans to give Elon Musk and his boys the ability to hope for government,” Warner said in a video posted to X.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA.) appears to be the most appropriate Democrat of Senate Democrats who may support CR.
“As part of shutting down the government, we are not intending to withhold any votes or votes,” Fetterman told CNN. “I don't know why my colleagues are trying to threaten to shut down the government.
“That's confusion. I'll never vote for Chaos.”
The dilemma facing Democrats is that many are watching the government's closure fight as the last major opportunity to draw concessions from Republicans until the spending process in September.
“We're going to wait to see what the house does first,” Schumer told reporters Tuesday.
They are particularly interested in curbing government efficiency (DOGE). That's why many hard-line Republicans support CR.
GOP leadership pitched StopGup as a way to buy more time to strip rejection members, allowing Republicans to work later to codify some of the Doge cuts.
“It takes a little time to sort them out. [and] It will be identified. And we're not going to prepare it all [in time],” Senator Chip Roy (R-Texas) previously told a post about the need for more time to codify the cut.
Congress is tasked with funding the federal government for every new accounting year that begins on or faces closures. And those Doge Cuts could be included in next year's fiscal resolution.
