The Senate approved a fourth short-term spending bill to push back government funding deadlines for fiscal 2024, narrowly averting a government shutdown that would have been triggered Friday.
The final vote was 77-13.
The House passed the CR early Thursday by a vote of 320 to 99. Two Democrats voted against it and 97 Republicans.
With new funding deadlines set for March 8 and 22, the plan now is to pass six appropriations bills to fund each government agency next week and six the week after that.
Next week’s six appropriations bills will likely be grouped into a package known as a ‘minibus’, where they will all be put to a single up-or-down vote.
The rest of the credits are expected to be grouped in one or two minibus votes.
The House passed its third interim short-term financing bill
Often in recent years, Congress has approved funding for all 12 government agencies in a single package, known as an omnibus.
House Republicans have long had a goal of passing twelve separate bills through individual votes, but they now apparently accept the unlikelihood of that.
Still, Johnson celebrated splitting the spending legislation into two or three votes as a victory.
‘We are trying to get the aircraft carrier back to true budget and spending reform. It was important to break it down into smaller pieces,” Johnson said.
The text of the spending bills is expected to be released over the weekend to give lawmakers 72 hours to review it and decide how to vote on the spending bills.
Congress is now shortening its time to pass a spending plan for fiscal year 2025, which begins in October.
The CR vote caps a less than 24-hour work week in Washington for the House, which only returned from a two-week recess Wednesday night.
Right-wing Republicans seemed despondent about another continuing resolution, or CR, the fourth of this Congress and the third under Johnson.
“I’m bringing back the nickname for the House of Representatives of being the House of Hypocrites,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., told reporters.
‘We have our Republicans, who remember the big fight earlier this year over the ban on CRs and the rules, and on buses and minibuses. Well, all that was talked about at the conference this morning was a CR, a one-week CR, another CR, conservative members of Congress stood up and wanted a one-year CR.’
The House Freedom Caucus had advocated for a year-long CR because across-the-board spending cuts of one percent would take effect on April 30.
But Johnson told them Thursday morning that the plan does not have broad support in the Republican conference.
“It’s a failure,” Greene said of the new spending plan. “We’re doing everything we said we wouldn’t do.”
“I’m bringing back the nickname for the House of Representatives of being the House of Hypocrites,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., told reporters.
Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, predicted this would “probably not” be the last time they would push back funding deadlines to later in the year and continue funding at levels set for 2023 under the House Speaker. Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.
“Voters I’ve spoken to over the last eight days in Texas during early voting are very displeased with what we’re doing in Congress,” Nehls told DailyMail.com.
“I think right now, if you ask me to place a bet in Las Vegas right now, I think we’re going to lose the House because of the way we’ve run this House.”
“Watching House Republicans is like watching football where the best play is the punt,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., on the House floor. “We are betting once again on the necessary spending cuts.”
Gaetz unseated former President Kevin McCarthy over his decision to introduce a CR months ago, arguing that McCarthy had not kept his word to pass 12 separate appropriations bills.
“Here we are again, kicking the can down the road,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who supports a full-year CR with 1 percent cuts. “We’re going to continue spending money at Nancy Pelosi’s level of spending on an omnibus bill that Republicans adamantly opposed.”