WASHINGTON (States Newsroom) — House Republicans approved a stopgap spending bill Tuesday that would keep the government funded for about six months, though the legislation must pass the Senate before a Friday midnight deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown.
The 217-213 House vote was largely along party lines, with Democrats opposing the measure, saying they instead want to work toward an agreement on the dozen full-year government funding bills. Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie was the only GOP lawmaker to vote against approval and Maine Rep. Jared Golden was the only Democratic member to support approval.
President Donald Trump and other members of the Trump administration sought to sway Massie to support the spending bill, in part, by encouraging Republicans to challenge Massie during the 2026 primary election.
Massie rejected the pressure on social media, writing that his “constituents prefer transparency and principles over blind allegiance.”
“POTUS is spending his day attacking me and Canada,” Massie wrote in a separate post, referring to Trump’s threats to hike tariffs on Canada. “The difference is Canada will eventually cave.”
Senate passage will require some Democrats to join Republicans for 60 votes to limit debate. Republicans hold 53 seats at the moment.
House Republicans announced a few hours before their vote that the chamber would leave for a 12-day recess on Tuesday instead of on Wednesday.
The schedule change prevents the Senate from amending the stopgap spending bill in any way, which would require the legislation to go back to the House for final approval. The House won’t return until Monday, March 24.
During a shutdown, exempt employees are generally considered essential for the preservation of life or property and continue working as normal. Non-exempt federal workers are not considered essential and are sent home until Congress approves a funding bill. Members of the military are considered exempt.
Neither group of federal employees receives a paycheck until after the shutdown ends when they’ll receive back pay.
Shutdowns don’t historically impact the administration of mandatory programs like Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid.
Thune feels ‘very comfortable”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he’s “hoping”’ Democrats vote to limit debate on the stopgap spending bill.
“We feel very comfortable that we will deliver a majority vote for this,” Thune said. “The question is, can we get the 60-vote supermajority threshold that’s necessary to pass it. And in order to do that, we need Democrats.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Democrats in that chamber are going to “wait to see what the House does first” before deciding if they’ll support or oppose the bill.
The last time Congress relied on a full-year continuing resolution was in fiscal 2013, but lawmakers had also passed the Agriculture-FDA, Commerce-Justice-Science, Defense, Homeland Security and Military Construction-VA appropriations bills that year.
Lawmakers also relied on a full-year stopgap for fiscal 2011, but passed a full-year Defense sending bill as well.
Better than a shutdown, Cole says
House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said during floor debate that another stopgap spending bill is “not what I wanted, but at the end of the day it is significantly better than the alternative — a government shutdown.”
“Despite our best efforts, we were unable to come to a final agreement on the full-year appropriations bills,” Cole said. “Although we were very close on a final dollar figure, my colleagues in the minority made additional demands that would restrict the legitimate authority of the executive in the appropriations process.
“These are restrictions that the minority would never accept for a Democratic president, nor are they provisions that President Trump would or should sign into law.”
Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, ranking member on the spending panel, said she wanted provisions added to the bill ensuring that the Trump administration would have to spend the money Congress appropriates as directed.
“This bill creates more flexibility for this administration to continue to undermine the Constitution and the countless spending laws by stealing promised investments from American families, children and businesses,” DeLauro said.
The stopgap spending bill, she said, would allow the Trump administration to continue to dismantle agencies, fire civil servants and cancel union contracts.
“Read the Constitution — Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7 — the power of the purse resides with the Congress and not with the executive,” DeLauro said. “And in fact, the president has no legitimate authority from meddling in the appropriations process.”
Congress should instead pass the stopgap spending bill Democrats introduced to fund the government through April 11, allowing time for both chambers to work out agreement on the full-year spending bills, DeLauro said.
Third continuing resolution
Congress was supposed to pass the dozen annual funding bills before the start of the current fiscal year on Oct. 1. But, as is typical, especially during an election year, lawmakers used a stopgap spending bill to fund the government through mid-December.
Normally, that is when the House and Senate would have wrapped up negotiations on final versions of the fiscal 2025 appropriations bills. But GOP lawmakers, who won unified control of government in November, used another stopgap spending bill to move final decisions on full-year bills into this year.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in December just after the House voted to approve that stopgap spending bill that it would help Republicans change how things are done.
“In January, we will make a sea change in Washington. President Trump will return to D.C. and to the White House, and we will have Republican control of the Senate and the House. Things are going to be very different around here,” Johnson said at the time. “This was a necessary step to bridge the gap to put us into that moment, where we can put our fingerprints on the final decisions on spending for 2025.”
Johnson ultimately decided this weekend to release a third continuing resolution that would fund the federal government through the rest of the fiscal year instead of having leaders on the Appropriations Committees negotiate full-year spending bills.
