House Passes Stop-Gap Spending Bill, Hoping to Avert a Government Shutdown

On a mostly partisan vote of 230-197, the Republican-controlled House approved the stopgap funds, sending the bill to the Senate for consideration before the looming deadline and as President Donald Trump pushed hard for a measure he can sign.

Its main feature, created to win Democratic support, is a six-year extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), whose funding expired last October 1. The vote tonight sets up a confrontation with the Senate.

Republicans on Capitol Hill have largely grown accustomed to what Ryan referred to Thursday as Trump’s “unconventional way” of doing things.

KELSEY SNELL, BYLINE: Hi there. “I think that’s where we’re hopeful that we’re going to get to that”. It doesn’t mean they’ll always get the votes (think health care in March), but they are rarely, if ever, off with their count. This is up to Republicans – at least until they reach a majority, then expect some Democrats to come over and join them. The White House later said the president fully backed the proposal pending in the House of Representatives, which includes the insurance plan.

The House is slated to vote Thursday evening but members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus are opposed to the measure.

The House Freedom Caucus staged a last-minute revolt against Speaker Paul Ryan and the rest of the House Republican leadership because the bill did not address long-term military spending.

But others are under pressure from their liberal base who mobilized when lawmakers voted for a short-term spending bill last time around. What are they asking for? He added that in return for protecting the young immigrants, “what they want in return is continuously a moving target and it continuously expands”.

The GOP controls the Senate 51-49 and will need a substantial number of Democratic votes to reach 60 – the number needed to end Democratic delaying tactics.

“We are asking Congress to act, the time is now, because tomorrow, there will be no time”, Bastien said.

Democrats want a deal on immigration, and they want that agreement to increase spending across the board as part of the spending bill. “They point at each other and nothing gets done”, he said. And there’s a serious lack of trust up here.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert says no decisions have been made about what services like visa processing and passports the State Department could provide during a shutdown.

The GOP faces a tough climate ahead of November’s elections: The newly elected president’s party typically loses seats in the midterms; President Trump’s approval ratings are at historic lows and a wave of GOP House retirements has put more than two dozen seats up for grabs. Under a precedent-setting memorandum by Reagan budget chief David Stockman, federal workers are exempted from furloughs if their jobs are national security-related or if they perform essential activities that “protect life and property”. What – how does it look for tomorrow? It’s entirely possible that the Senate will start holding procedural votes as soon as later tonight. And it’s a risk.

Democrats voting against that December bill included some senators – including Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California – who might seek the presidency in 2020 and would love support from their party’s liberal voters.