House Republicans on Friday advanced a month-long plan to fund the government — but they are still short of the votes needed to pass the bill itself with mere hours remaining before a shutdown starts at midnight on Saturday.
The vote marked a victory for Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who is navigating a high-stakes spending fight with his gavel on the line, though it’s likely to be a short-lived win. Republicans paired the funding stopgap, known as a continuing resolution, with steep spending cuts and a GOP border bill. They prevailed, 218-210, with every Republican present voting yes.
Both hardliners and McCarthy allies are still predicting the spending patch will fail later Friday.
Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) predicted that “I believe the [bill] will probably go down.”
“We’ve been here three nights where we’ve been doing this past midnight,” he said of the grueling effort to pass spending bills this week. “Tempers are short. People are tired. You make your biggest mistakes in life when you’re tired and angry … And we are both.”
Several Republicans who helped bring the legislation up for debate — including Reps. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) and Tim Burchett (Tenn.) — have said they will oppose the bill itself. That is likely enough to kill it, given McCarthy’s four-seat majority and several members’ absences for health reasons.
“There wasn’t ever any negotiations. … It’s pretty much a rudderless ship,” Burchett said.
McCarthy hasn’t telegraphed what his next steps will be if the spending bill goes down, as expected, while he struggles to unite his thin majority behind a strategy. Republicans will vote on the stopgap bill on Friday afternoon and then go almost immediately to meet behind closed doors at 2:30 p.m.
He is essentially daring his GOP colleagues to vote against the bill, arguing that it would be a vote against border security. He also brushed off questions about cutting a deal to avert a shutdown, which would require buy-in from the Senate and Democrats.
McCarthy told reporters earlier Friday that he would “not give up,” pledging to “pass our bills and keep the government open.”
“I’m putting a bill on the floor so the government won’t shut down. The Senate hasn’t done that. The president hasn’t engaged in anything,” McCarthy added.
He reiterated that he has spoken to both Democratic and Republican senators about a potential amendment on immigration that may get added to the upper chamber’s spending bill — making clear that, even as senators discuss adding money for border enforcement, he would prefer “real policy.”
Among the policy fronts McCarthy considers meaningful for a potential add-on to the Senate bill, he said, are the Trump-era provision known as Remain in Mexico and the pandemic-related border restriction called Title 42. He also referenced a drug cartel-focused bill the House GOP has pursued and changes to asylum seeking processes.
