The U.S. House voted 339 to 85 to pass 6 spending bills that will keep the government open until the end of Fiscal Year 2024. 207 Democrats voted for the bill, with 132 Republicans joining them. The package contained 1,050 pages and includes $450 billion of funding for the government.
The legislation is expected to pass the Senate before the Friday government shutdown deadline. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-AR) claimed the move nudges congress in the right direction towards passing full omnibus deals, saying “In a way we’re sort of victimized by the tradition that’s been developed in Congress and we’re working really hard to bend that backwards, right. And so you can’t turn an aircraft carrier overnight. So what we did was we broke the omnibus fever, we put it into the laddered CR approach.”
House approves spending package to avert shutdown – thehill.com
Excerpt:
The House on Wednesday approved a package of six spending bills, sending the legislation to the Senate days ahead of Friday’s partial government shutdown deadline.
The “minibus” — which funds a slew of programs and agencies through the end of fiscal 2024 — cleared the House in an 339-85 vote, with 207 Democrats and 132 Republicans throwing their support behind the measure.
The 1,050-page package calls for more than $450 billion in funding for the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Interior, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Commerce and Energy.
The legislation now heads to the Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the chamber will hold a vote this week so Congress can fund the relevant departments “with time to spare before Friday’s deadline.” That timeline, however, is up in the air.
The successful vote means the House is halfway done with the appropriations process for fiscal 2024, an undertaking that has fractured the GOP conference, thrown Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) into hot water with his right flank, and required four short-term extensions to arrive at the current juncture.
