Washington — House GOP leaders on Tuesday announced a plan to avoid a shutdown and keep the government funded until Nov. 21, unveiling legislation that also includes funds for additional security to lawmakers and other officials in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said the bill is not “partisan” but a “short-term, clean continuing resolution that will keep the government funded and operating at current levels while we continue all this work and doing our jobs and getting the remaining bills done.”
The speaker said a Friday vote is expected in the House, giving lawmakers the standard 72 hours to review the legislation.
The House Rules Committee planned to take up the legislation Tuesday afternoon.
Lawmakers have a Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government. But party leaders appeared far apart even as the legislation was unveiled Tuesday. Adding to the pressure, Congress is scheduled to be in recess next week for Rosh Hashanah.
Democrats have pushed for bipartisan negotiations on the bill, demanding that enhanced tax credits for Americans who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace be extended. The subsidies were originally passed in 2021 during the pandemic and extended in 2022 for another three years.
Johnson has dismissed the inclusion of an extension in the short-term funding bill, saying it’s “a December policy issue, not a September funding issue.”
With a narrow Republican majority in the House, Republicans could approve a funding measure without support from Democrats, though it would require near-unanimous approval from the GOP conference. And a handful of Republicans have already pledged to oppose the measure.
Getting the bill through the Senate is another story. Though Republicans also have a majority in the upper chamber, with 53 seats, the legislation requires a 60-vote threshold to advance, making the support of at least seven Democrats necessary.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, has argued that a “clean” extension of government funding would “ensure there is no reason for Democrats to oppose this bill and delay passage.” He cited Democrats’ demands during previous funding fights that any extension be free of divisive policy measures and current funding levels maintained.
“Leader Thune wants to wonder what has changed? A lot.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said on the Senate floor Monday.
Schumer cited the passage of a massive tax and spending bill earlier this year that included cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programs, the president’s tariffs and the cancellation of previously appropriated funding by Congress.
On Monday, President Trump put pressure on Republicans to fall in line on a clean continuing resolution, claiming in a post on Truth Social that Democrats “want the Government to shut down.”
“In times like these, Republicans have to stick TOGETHER to fight back against the Radical Left Democrat demands, and vote ‘YES!’ on both Votes needed to pass a Clean CR this week out of the House of Representatives,” Mr. Trump said.
In wake of Kirk’s assassination last week, lawmakers attached an additional $30 million in funding for their security to the bill, along with $58 million that the White House requested for executive and judicial branches. Johnson outlined Sunday on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that he has been speaking with members and “trying to calm the nerves to assure them that we will make certain that everyone has a level of security that’s necessary.”
The speaker said House GOP leaders were “evaluating all the options” to ensure resources will be available for lawmakers’ residential security and personal security. But he noted that “it does take a certain measure of courage to step out and to lead.”‘
The legislation also includes a budget fix for the District of Columbia, after lawmakers effectively blocked around $1 billion in funds earlier this year.
A bipartisan Russia sanctions measure was not attached to the funding bill. Spearheaded by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the sanctions bill received fresh momentum after Russian drones entered Poland’s airspace during an attack on Ukraine earlier this month. But it has not yet received the green light from Mr. Trump, which lawmakers have been waiting for to move ahead on a vote.
The measure has the expressed support of 85 senators and nearly a quarter of House lawmakers, who have been pushing for months for a vote on the legislation that would impose new economic sanctions on countries that import Russian energy to dial up pressure on the Kremlin to end its war in Ukraine.
“Time is of the essence. We urge our colleagues to consider attaching this legislation to the CR,” Graham and Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, who sponsored similar legislation in the House, said in a statement Saturday.
Graham said Tuesday there could be a resolution to the Russia sanctions legislation soon.
“We’re going to move this bill. I’m intent on moving this bill,” Graham told reporters. “There will be a plan here coming out in the next few days, I think, to act on this bill.”
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