Faced with another government funding deadline of just 12 hours, Speaker Mike Johnson pushed a $1.2 trillion spending package through the House on Friday and set it up for a last-second vote in the Senate to avoid a shutdown.
The final vote on the massive spending bill was 286 – 134. Notably, more Democrats voted for the deal than Republicans. The majority of Republicans – 112 in all – voted against the measure supported by President Johnson.
The 1,000-page measure raises funds for six of the 12 appropriations bills that must be passed annually. It packs nearly 75 percent of the government’s annual funding into just one vote, called a minibus.
Despite Johnson’s victory, the clock is ticking, and the bill still needs to pass the Senate and be signed by President Biden to avoid a partial government shutdown that would follow after 1 p.m. 23:59 Friday.
The billion-dollar deal — details of which were only revealed Thursday — will provide money to the Department of Defense, Financial Services, Homeland Security, Labor-HHS Training, State-Foreign Operations and the Legislative Department.
Speaker Mike Johnson released the details of a $1.2 trillion government bailout package Thursday
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good, R-Va., rallied Republicans against the GOP House Speaker for voting against the bill
The deal was opposed by many notable conservatives, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., and nearly 100 other Republicans.
Greene went so far as to file a motion to vacate the chairmanship while the votes were underway, enraged by his support for massive spending — setting up a tumultuous process that could take the hammer away from Johnson.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said the bill would pass when asked just before the votes, indicating that Democrats are largely on board with the deal.
When the final tally was tallied, 185 Democrats rallied with 101 Republicans to get the funding bill over the line.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said the Senate Democratic majority would work to pass the deal earlier this week, calling the deal “good news.”
Schumer boasted that the deal secured support for child care services, disease research, mental health programs and suicide prevention.
Senate Republicans, meanwhile, have railed against the deal.
“The Swamp is pushing this horrible funding bill at lightning speed so Americans can’t see what’s in it,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, wrote on X.
Late. Rick Scott, R-Fla., wrote on X: ‘Why is the minibus funding a $500,000 grant to help a closed hospital in Maryland document its history? We are 34 TRILLION in debt. Washington can’t keep wasting your tax dollars on this stupid crap!’
Many conservative Republicans in the House were also upset by the measure and the way Johnson rushed a vote on the biblically long bill without giving members the usual 72 hours to read the fine print.
“We don’t need 72 hours to vote against a bad bill,” conservative House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good said at a news conference before the vote.
He and like-minded Republicans led the charge to oppose the legislation.
“Why are we in a hurry to keep this government open, which then hurts the American people because of the very policies they are suffering from.”
Good condemned the package for maintaining “Pelosi-Schumer’s policies and spending levels,” noting how the bill actually “increases spending levels by about $60 billion.”
Another member of the Freedom Caucus, Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., said “Clearly, the Democrats own the speaker’s gavel.”
Still, the GOP leadership touted conservative victories like a three percent increase in defense spending, retention of the Hyde Amendment and a ban on restrictions on gas stoves.
But mainstream conservatives have called for other provisions like the bill’s $200 million for a new FBI headquarters and $300 million going to the Ukraine aid initiative.
The House passed $1.2 trillion in state aid just hours before a deadline Friday night
Congress similarly passed a $460 billion funding deal on March 8 just hours before the money allocated to the agencies ran out.
The deal “secured key conservative policy victories” in the roughly $460 billion measure despite a “divided government” and rejected “left-leaning proposals,” Speaker Johnson said at the time.
That bill included funding for six federal agencies — including Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy-Water, Interior-Environment, Military Construction-VA and Transportation-HUD.
It also imposed “deep cuts” to the EPA (10%), ATF (7%) and FBI (6%), which Johnson said have “threatened our freedoms and our economy.”