WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — The House voted to support a measure keeping the government funded past Friday night’s deadline, sending the bill to the Senate just hours before a looming shutdown.
The chamber voted 366-34-1 in support of the legislation to avoid a shutdown. The Senate is expected to vote on the plan later Friday evening.
“We’re grateful that everyone stood together to do the right thing,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters.
Johnson called the bill “America first legislation” and urged the Senate to pass it.
The bill, which is more than 1,500 pages, would keep the government funded at current levels through March 14, 2025. It also includes add-ons like more than $100 billion in disaster and emergency funding, a health care-related package, and an extension of the farm bill.
The House vote comes after weeks of back and forth, likely marking the end of tumultuous negotiations on Capitol Hill.
Republicans had abandoned a bipartisan plan Wednesday to prevent a shutdown after President-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk came out against it.
John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, thinks Friday’s resolution is a loss for the president-elect, calling it a “self-inflicted wound.”
“Trump instigated the fight and he got beaten,” Bolton said on NewsNation’s “On Balance with Leland Vittert” Friday.
Bolton added: “I think this vote on the continuing resolution could really tell a lot about what may happen in Congress generally once we get past the first of the year.”
What are Republicans and Democrats saying?
The bill cleared the two-thirds threshold needed for passage but 34 Republican lawmakers opposed the legislation.
Representative Mike Lawler, a New York Republican who voted in favor of the bill, dismissed concerns of a fractured GOP caucus on “CUOMO” Friday.
“A lot of my colleagues have never voted for a [continuing resolution] or to increase the debt ceiling, so I’m not surprised,” Lawler told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo.
He added: “We’re going to have a unified government and Republicans do agree that we need to rein in federal spending.”
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash, accused the GOP of double-talking when it comes to fiscal responsibility.
“Have you heard them point to one, single, solitary specific cut that they would do?” Smith said on “CUOMO.”
What is the spending bill?
The spending bill lays out how to distribute federal money to agencies, departments and programs that keep the government running.
Creating this budget has led to many clashes between Republicans and Democrats.
What were the two sides arguing about?
Trump had tied a demand for dealing with the debt ceiling to the dispute over government funding, saying one should not be addressed without the other.
When he rejected the spending proposal Wednesday, Trump said that he wanted the debt ceiling debate settled before he takes office next month.
Warning of trouble ahead for Johnson and Republicans in Congress, Trump told Fox News Digital, “Anybody that supports a bill that doesn’t take care of the Democrat quicksand known as the debt ceiling should be primaried and disposed of as quickly as possible.”
After meeting with his caucus, Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries rejected any possibility that his members would bail out Republicans as the shutdown threat loomed.
“GOP extremists want House Democrats to raise the debt ceiling so that House Republicans can lower the amount of your Social Security check,” Jeffries posted Thursday on social media. “Hard pass.”
Jeffries and other Democrats said Republicans should honor the spending agreement that was negotiated before Trump got involved.
Which agencies would have been impacted by a shutdown?
Each federal agency determines its own plan for how to handle a shutdown, but basically, any government operations deemed nonessential stop happening, and hundreds of thousands of federal employees would have seen their work disrupted.
Sometimes, workers would have been furloughed, meaning that they kept their jobs but temporarily didn’t work until the government reopened. Other federal workers might have stayed on the job but without pay, with the expectation that they would be paid back in full once the government reopened.
What was Elon Musk’s role?
Musk brought to a sudden halt a bipartisan budget proposal by posting constantly on X (formerly Twitter) and threatening Republicans with primary challenges.
The social media warnings preceded Trump’s condemnation of a measure negotiated by GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson, which effectively killed the stopgap measure that was designed to prevent a partial shutdown of the federal government.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.