House passes first bills to avert government shutdown until September
The House on Wednesday passed the first tranche of six annual appropriations bills, averting a partial government shutdown that was set to take effect on Friday.
Why it matters: Unlike the stopgap spending bills Congress has been passing since last fall, these bills keep their respective agencies funded to September.
- The six bills were passed in a single package, known as a minibus, in a broadly bipartisan 335-85 vote.
The details: The bills, agreed to by both parties, fund the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Transportation and Veterans Affairs.
- They include minimal spending cuts and conservative policy riders, to the chagrin of House right-wingers, in order to make them palatable to Senate Democrats and President Biden.
Between the lines: The bill was passed under a process that required a two-thirds majority but allowed GOP leadership to bypass a party-line procedural vote that right-wing hardliners likely would have tanked.
- The right-wing Freedom Caucus opposed the bill, correctly predicting that it would receive more votes from Democrats than Republicans.
- It's not clear whether House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will face an attempted ouster due to the passage of the bills.
What's next: The bill heads to the Senate, while the House begins work on the next six appropriations bills.
- Those bills, which include the massive budgets of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Pentagon, will be more controversial. The deadline to pass them is March 22.