The House passed a short-term funding patch Tuesday night that is designed to head off a partial government shutdown this fall. The continuing resolution passed on a mostly party-line vote of 220-205, with only one Republican — Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie — joining most Democrats in opposition. Six Democrats broke with their party to support the measure: Reps. Kathy Castor of Florida, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina, Jared Golden of Maine, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, and Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico. The stopgap measure would extend current funding through Dec. 4, providing about an extra two months to complete full appropriations bills for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. But the bill that emerged from the House is unlikely to be the final version. Senate Republicans have complained that it lacks many of the "anomalies," or deviations from current spending, sought by the Trump administration to address what it sees as critical priorities, including military funding. That concern could trigger a game of ping-pong between the two chambers before a final continuing resolution becomes law. “I think the House will send us something, and then hopefully we'll be able to modify it so that we can get Democrat votes on it,” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said Tuesday. “And if we can get Democrat votes on it, send it back to the House as the best we can do.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Tuesday that lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are working to reach an agreement on a stopgap bill that runs past the midterm elections. Thune also said he intends to bring a bill to the floor “before the August break.” However, the House is scheduled to leave town Thursday for its August recess, while the Senate is scheduled to remain in session for an additional two weeks. The disparate legislative calendars raise the possibility that a final stopgap bill may not be ironed out until both chambers return in September. But House leadership charged ahead with its own slimmer CR, which was drafted and released before the White House had submitted its anomaly requests. GOP leaders won a modest victory earlier Tuesday when the House adopted a rule that was needed to take up the stopgap bill, on a 214-211 vote. Conservatives in the House say the strategy to vote on a stopgap before the coming August recess helps remove the threat of a government shutdown in the fall sooner. But some also hope the move will put pressure on Democrats ahead of the November elections. “We also want to put a little pressure on the Senate,” House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Tuesday, while blaming Democrats for stalled appropriations bills in the Senate. Cole said part of the hope is to “create some momentum” as appropriators look to strike what is poised to be their last major funding deal before the midterm elections. Democratic pushback Prominent Democrats criticized the funding extension in recent days, noting the legislation was crafted without bipartisan input and released before members could receive a list of requested anomalies from the White House. And House Democratic leaders announced their opposition to the measure Tuesday evening. "This continuing resolution is a premature and desperate attempt by Republicans to abdicate their responsibility to govern while there are still several months left to negotiate a bipartisan agreement," said Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Whip Katherine M. Clark, D-Mass., and Conference Chairman Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., in a joint statement. "We will be voting No." In a document produced by House Democratic appropriators, the party raised concerns over whether the stopgap would provide sufficient funding for various programs through early December and said the recent list from the White House indicated “potentially serious issues left unaddressed by the Republican funding bill.” That includes, Democrats said, “funding shortfalls for public housing agencies to maintain housing assistance,” “cuts to wildland fire suppression operations” and “USDA programs to help address utility costs in rural communities.” House Democrats also sounded an alarm about a provision they say is missing from the bill that would prevent the Trump administration from being able to transfer additional funding to the Border Patrol. They cited language in the fiscal 2026 Homeland Security funding law that zeroes out such funding, and accused Republicans of refusing to include the prohibition in the latest stopgap. GOP appropriators have largely pushed back on those arguments. Cole argued Tuesday that the bill “doesn't undo anything,” while also raising the point that language explicitly blocking such funding could jeopardize GOP support. Thune's threat Thune told reporters Tuesday that bipartisan talks are underway to find a path forward on funding agencies past September, but he also warned that Republicans could turn to reconciliation to fund the government if those discussions fall apart. Thune said the Senate would hold up the budget resolution being considered in the House if it gets adopted this week, adding: “It’s a possibility that if necessary, we could pull that budget resolution passed by the House and use it to fund government.” The budget resolution would lay the groundwork for a reconciliation package providing up to $95 billion for defense spending, farm aid and voting restrictions along the lines of the so-called SAVE America Act. But Thune appeared to suggest using that resolution to fund regular appropriations for federal agencies if the two parties reached an impasse. “I hope that's not necessary,” he said. “As I said, we've had conversations, productive conversations, on both sides of the aisle on a funding resolution that would carry us past the November election.” But Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, an appropriator who has bristled at the use of the partisan reconciliation process to provide regular appropriations, pushed back on Thune's reconciliation threat Tuesday night. "You know how I feel about this," Murkowski said. "Yeah, I don't like the idea."
