Tipsheet

Here's the Government Spending Measure the House GOP Failed to Pass Late Last Night

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  September 29, 2023 6:35 AM

We knew it would end like this when Congress recessed for Yom Kippur. The government has been out of session perilously close to the deadline for running out of money. They have until September 30 to pass a funding measure to keep the lights on, but Congress is shut down when the clock strikes midnight on October 1. Speaker Kevin McCarthy wanted to pass a series of other appropriations bills to curry goodwill before moving onto a vote to keep the government open. 

The vote for the spending bills that didn’t involve shutting down Congress was voted on late last night. Defense and Ukraine aid passed, but agriculture didn’t make the cut. Regardless of falling short here, McCarthy still must move on the funding measure to avert a government shutdown today, but it’s likely things will grind to a halt this weekend up on the Hill. There isn’t enough time. It would be a miracle if they could pull it off, but I doubt it (via Politico): 

House Republicans failed late Thursday night to pass one of their party’s slimmed-down spending measures, another fumble by GOP leaders just days before an impending government shutdown. 

Speaker Kevin McCarthy plans to move Friday to a narrower GOP stopgap funding patch that's loaded up with spending cuts and border policies, though that measure currently lacks the votes from his own party that it needs to pass. House and Senate leaders are still not coordinating on a deal to stave off the funding lapse that’s set to take effect at midnight Sunday. 

In the end, Republicans faltered on one out of the four full-year measures bills, only the bill that funds the Department of Agriculture. A separate measure on Ukraine aid, which was stripped out of GOP’s Pentagon funding bill earlier this week, was also approved overwhelmingly, with all Democrats joining to back the bill. 

Still, none of those measures — to fund the Pentagon, the State Department or the Homeland Security department — would help Congress deal with a funding deadline just two days away. McCarthy and his team will now pivot to rounding up the votes for a GOP-drafted short-term funding bill, which includes billions of spending cuts and new border security provisions. That measure is seen as the path to negotiating with the Senate and, perhaps, ultimately striking a deal. 

“It’s all part of the leadership’s strategy to get to a CR. And to win our conference on the notion of a CR, we had to demonstrate some progress” on spending bills, said Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), referring to a tide-me-over funding patch known as a continuing resolution. 

So far though, McCarthy and his allies remain short on the votes for any stopgap — even loaded up with GOP policies. McCarthy plans to hold a press conference Friday morning to discuss next steps. 

“I don’t know how many Democrats will vote for it, but it doesn’t have enough Republicans to pass," said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). 

McCarthy has a way out, though one that would also cost him his job: he could solicit votes from Democrats. Doing so would trigger a leadership challenge, but in theory, that’s where you go when you only have a slim five-seat majority and you need votes to keep the government open. The Senate’s stopgap measure isn’t going to get a vote either. 

Democrats have been firing off the ‘Republican shutdown’ line for days. They’re readying themselves for the messaging assault that must be aggressively sustained in these showdowns. Is the GOP ready?


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