The Senate approved a short-term spending measure Thursday night to keep the government open through January 19, avoiding a government shutdown ahead of a Friday deadline.
Along with funding the government for nearly a month, the bill extends funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program through March and includes a three-week extension of a government surveillance program.
The House approved the measure earlier Thursday by 231-188.
Immediately after the vote, the House also passed an $81 billion disaster aid bill in the wake of this year’s devastating hurricanes and wildfires. The bill includes additional money for hurricane recovery in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, along with fires that affected California. It passed the House 251-169, but it’s not expected to be taken up in the Senate until after the new year.
Republican leaders had appeared at an impasse over the spending bill just hours before the House voted, though signs of progress toward a resolution began to emerge throughout the day. House Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry, a Texas Republican who demanded for weeks that the Pentagon needed a full year spending bill with added resources, told reporters Thursday that he would now vote for a stopgap bill to extend current levels until mid-January and he believes it will pass.
He said he has had some “very intense conversations” with his leadership, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and others about finalizing a broader deal.
“I am pretty optimistic that we will be able to have an agreement in January that starts the rebuilding process of the military, but we’ve got to quit using the military as a political pawn,” he said.
Just a day after passing their major tax overhaul that dropped the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, reduced individual tax rates and expanded the child tax credit, the GOP was trying to make sure they had the votes for a short-term spending bill just hours before the vote.
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi encouraged her members to vote against a short-term continuing resolution in a dear colleagues letter earlier in the week. Democrats were also seeking to add an extension or permanent legislative version of the DACA — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — program, but that will not be in the bill.
“I don’t think there are going to be any Dem votes there,” Rep. Richard Hudson, a Republican from North Carolina, said Wednesday evening.
At a weekly meeting for the House Democratic whip team Thursday, leaders reiterated that there have been no efforts to engage in any bipartisan talks and they are urging their members to vote no on both the stopgap funding bill and the disaster aid package.
Republicans are also trying to pass a separate package to aid disaster zones that were affected by hurricanes and fires.
“They are on their own,” a senior House Democratic leadership aide told CNN about the Republicans. This aide acknowledged that some Democrats from affected states may vote for the bill providing resources to rebuild after a series of storms.
President Donald Trump tweeted Thursday morning that it was up to Republicans now to ensure the government keeps running.
“House Democrats want a SHUTDOWN for the holidays in order to distract from the very popular, just passed, Tax Cuts. House Republicans, don’t let this happen. Pass the C.R. TODAY and keep our Government OPEN!” Trump tweeted.
If the House does pass a bill, the legislation will still have to go to the US Senate where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will need at least eight Democratic votes at least to keep the government open.
The three-week extension of the FISA Section 702 surveillance program had been set to expire at the end of the year. The program, first amended to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 2008 and reauthorized in 2012, has been called the holy grail of intelligence gathering, allowing agencies to legally monitor emails and phone calls of foreign nationals outside of the US.
A handful of standalone bills renewing the program have been proposed in the House and Senate, running the spectrum from a clean and permanent reauthorization, to a four-year extension with significant reform.
This story has been updated and will continue to update with additional developments.