House votes to begin debate on spending bills with just days until government shutdown

The House narrowly voted to advance a batch of spending bills, marking the chamber’s first sign of progress toward renewing funding the federal government with just five days until the fiscal year ends.

Lawmakers voted 216-212 to begin debate on four appropriations bills, teeing the legislation up for final votes as early as this week. The vote comes after weeks of negotiations between House leaders and hard-line conservatives on how to move forward with spending legislation, a routine process that was complicated after a handful of GOP holdouts voted against the annual defense spending bill twice last week.

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However, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is not in the clear yet. The rules vote is a routine procedural move that allows lawmakers to begin debate on any piece of legislation, meaning it rarely fails a floor vote — and its passage on Tuesday does little to guarantee that the four spending bills will pass the House later this week.

That process was upended last week after GOP hardliners voted twice to block debate on the defense spending bill, voicing frustrations with leaders’ plans to move a continuing resolution onto the floor to avert a government shutdown. Five Republicans shot down that rules vote on Thursday, but McCarthy managed to flip enough members to advance the legislation.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was the sole Republican to vote against the rule, voicing opposition to provisions in the spending bills that would provide funding to Ukraine. 

The House will reconvene around 10:30 p.m. to consider more than 100 amendments to the appropriations bills before lawmakers vote on the four individual votes later this week. The four bills include appropriations for defense, homeland security, state and foreign operations, and agriculture.

The defense and homeland appropriations bill are increases in spending from fiscal year 2023 whereas the state and foreign operations and agriculture appropriations bill slash funding.

Congress has until Saturday to pass the budget for the next fiscal year, after which the government will run out of money and shut down until a deal is made. By then, lawmakers must advance 12 individual appropriations bills in each chamber before sending their final product to the president’s desk for approval, setting the stage for an arduous process as House Republicans and Senate Democrats disagree on overall spending numbers.

It’s unlikely the House or the Senate will be able to advance all 12 appropriations bills and negotiate a compromise before the shutdown deadline, prompting some lawmakers to consider a continuing resolution that would keep the government funded at the same levels until a final agreement is reached.

McCarthy said the House will begin voting on appropriations bills on Wednesday and Thursday, with plans to bring some sort of continuing resolution or temporary spending measure to the floor by Friday — a move several hardline conservatives have opposed. McCarthy unveiled a proposal during a GOP conference meeting last week that would set a top line for a continuing resolution at $1.471 trillion and included H.R. 2, the House’s border security bill, and a fiscal commission to look at how to reduce the government’s debt.

But there is still staunch opposition to a continuing resolution in the Republican conference, making passage on any stopgap funding measure more difficult.

“I couldn’t understand how some of our members would join with President Biden against the ability to secure the border. That wouldn’t seem right,” McCarthy said.

At least nine Republicans voiced their opposition to the continuing resolution last week and over the weekend, making it unlikely to pass the lower chamber without Democratic support. As a result, some centrist Republicans have entered into talks with Democrats for a possible bipartisan deal — which could pose a challenge to McCarthy, whose speakership is being threatened by some on his right flank if he attempts to work with those on the other side of the aisle.

But House Republicans are running out of time to pass a continuing resolution and might get jammed by a group of bipartisan House members who have proposed a continuing resolution of their own, which they think they can bring to the floor using procedural loopholes.

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Meanwhile in the Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is set to unveil text of a stopgap spending measure that was negotiated between Republicans and Democrats over the weekend, which the New York Democrat says he hopes to bring up for a vote by the end of the week.

“We are very close to finishing our work and hope to release text soon,” Schumer said. “The Senate CR is a good, sensible and bipartisan bill.”