House passes stopgap bill to fund government as Senate eyes alternative
by Lindsey McPherson · The Washington TimesThe House passed a bill Tuesday evening that would keep the government funded through Dec. 4, but the Senate is preparing an alternative stopgap measure.
The vote was 220-205, with all but six House Democrats voting in opposition.
The minority leadership team argued the measure “fails to block funding for Donald Trump’s violent mass deportation machine” and gives his administration more power over the federal budget.
Current government funding does not expire until Sept. 30, but Republican leaders wanted to bring an extension to the floor early to show Democrats, whom Republicans accuse of forcing two record funding lapses in the past year, are prepared to pick another shutdown fight.
“They’ve already demonstrated they don’t care what kind of pain they inflict on the American people. They do this to try to score political points,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said.
Democrats are making the wrong calculation in showing “there’s nothing they love more than a government shutdown as tens of millions of Americans have to vote in November,” the Louisiana Republican said.
The stopgap bill will extend current funding levels and policies past the midterms, nine weeks into the next fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
It was put together without Democrats’ input.
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“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,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar said in a joint statement.
The Senate is separately trying to negotiate a bipartisan agreement on a stopgap funding extension that will incorporate so-called “anomalies,” changes from the current budget the administration says are needed for an array of priorities.
“We got the list from them yesterday of things that they want in there, and we’re working with the Democrats on a path forward here in the Senate,” said Majority Leader John Thune.
The South Dakota Republican said he wants to hold a floor vote on the funding extension in the next two weeks, before the Senate adjourns for its summer recess.
The House is set to begin its break at the end of this week, so there is no chance of the stopgap becoming law until the chamber returns in September.
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The key to a bipartisan agreement on a stopgap will be ensuring that there is no new money or authority for immigration enforcement agencies, which Democrats say need to be reined in after at least four fatal shootings by federal agents this year.
After the first two deaths in Minneapolis, Democrats shut down the Homeland Security Department for a record 76 days.
They were pushing for guardrails on the operations and oversight of immigration enforcement agents, but ultimately did not secure any policy concessions from Republicans.
They did, however, force the GOP to omit new funding for immigration enforcement agencies in the DHS spending bill that ended the shutdown.
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Republicans later passed a filibuster-proof budget reconciliation bill providing $70 billion to fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) through the duration of Mr. Trump’s presidency.
House Democrats said the GOP stopgap risks upsetting the agreement reached earlier this year because it would allow DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to transfer billions of additional dollars to border patrol.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democratic appropriator, said her party assumed it was a drafting mistake but when they suggested language to fix it, Republicans refused to change the bill.
“In recent weeks, immigration agents have shot and killed residents in Maine and in Texas, neither of whom were targets of enforcement operations,” she said. “We cannot in good conscience allow billions of dollars to flow to these agencies without major reforms to keep our constituents safe from further violence.”
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Ms. DeLauro emphasized that “Democrats do not want a government shutdown” and there are still two months to negotiate a deal before the funding deadline.
She said the administration’s anomalies list contains more than 50 programs that require funding flexibility and most are not included in the GOP’s stopgap bill.
She said the omitted anomalies include measures to support wildfire suppression operations, public housing funding and utility assistance for rural communities.
Rep. Tom Cole, Oklahoma Republican and House Appropriations chairman, said the administration was delayed in sending the anomalies list so the bill was drafted before those requests were received.
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He said that should not be a reason to vote for an otherwise clean extension of current government funding because Congress can always pass another bill later to make the changes.
“This [bill] just ensures we won’t shut down the government,” Mr. Cole said. “That’s a pretty easy thing to be for, but my Democratic friends are struggling with it.”
Mr. Thune is hoping Senate Democrats will cooperate on a funding extension, but said if they do not he would consider funding all of the government through the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process Republicans used to fund ICE and CBP.
“I hope that’s not necessary,” he 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.”
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Lindsey McPherson
lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com
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