Feb. 29 (UPI) — The House is expected to vote Thursday afternoon on another stopgap effort extending funding deadlines for government operations into March.
Lawmakers are set to vote between 1:30 p.m. and 2:15 p.m. EST before leaving the Capitol for the weekend and returning Tuesday evening. House leadership said that votes for Friday, the final day to approve a spending measure had been canceled.
On Wednesday, House and Senate leaders said in a joint statement they are in agreement that “Congress must work in a bipartisan manner to fund our government.”
The House proposed a short-term continuing resolution that would extend a deadline to March 8 to fund Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Interior, Justice, and Housing and Urban Development departments with permanent bills for the remainder of the fiscal year.
Another six funding bills for the Labor, Health and Human Services, Defense and other federal departments would keep them open until March 22, which would give lawmakers time to finalize them through the end of the fiscal year.
The stopgap is necessary to give lawmakers two more weeks to come to agreement on funding for the remainder of the fiscal year ending Sept. 31.
The White House said Wednesday the votes would “help prevent a needless shutdown while providing more time to work on bipartisan appropriations bills and for the House to pass the bipartisan national security supplemental as quickly as possible.”
However, the vote has drawn out divisions in the GOP-led House as Reps. Troy Nehls, R-Texas; Byron Donalds, R-Fla., and Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., have already said they will not vote for the measure which must pass by a two-thirds majority, requiring support from Democrats.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., also said she would not vote Thursday as she was unhappy with both the stopgap bill and “our entire GOP conference.”
“Remember the big fight earlier this year about no CRs and rules and no omnibuses and no minibuses? Well, everything talked about in conference this morning was a CR, another CR, a week-long CR,” Greene said. “And then you’ve got the most conservative members of Congress standing up wanting a one-year CR. I don’t know what to say.”
But Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., told reporters Speaker Mike Johnson and the GOP House caucus have just a two-person majority in a divided Washington and he said Johnson isn’t likely to face a vote to remove him over this deal.
“This is House Republicans coming to terms with reality,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he hoped the Senate would be able to pass the measure in the evening.
“Once the House acts, I hope the Senate can pass the short-term CR as soon as tonight, but that will require all of us working together,” he said. “There’s certainly no reason this should take a very long time. So let’s cooperate and get it done quickly.”
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., the top Democrat negotiator in the defense funding bill isn’t happy about the continuing chaotic funding brinkmanship, but nevertheless supports the action averting a shutdown.
“If that’s what it takes to get this done, then let’s do it. But this ‘kicking the can down the road’ crap really does need to stop,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Republicans in the chamber would help to act “swiftly” to get the funding bill passed.
