Congress passes funding bill to avoid October shutdown, pushing fight past midterms

Washington — The House on Tuesday passed a measure to extend government funding into December, averting a shutdown in the final stretch of the campaign ahead of the November midterm elections. 

The Senate approved the short-term bipartisan funding bill in early August before its five-week recess, but the House was already on its lengthy summer break. The House, which returned Monday, passed the measure in a 370 to 48 vote after GOP leaders fast-tracked the bill, requiring two-thirds majority support for passage. 

Funding is now set to expire on Dec. 11, more than a month after the midterm elections, when the balance of power in the House and Senate for the next two years will be decided. 

Since April, the House Appropriations Committee has advanced all 12 annual appropriations bills that fund the federal government. Three have been approved by the full House. The process has stalled in the Senate, where none of the funding measures have made it out of the Senate Appropriations Committee. 

“We want to get a longer-term deal, but at a minimum, let’s ensure that we can continue to see government properly funded and functioning,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, said Tuesday.

GOP Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, was doubtful that the extension would provide enough cushion for Congress to pass full-year legislation. 

“The Senate has wasted the entire year and a half. They have not passed a single bill,” he said Tuesday, blaming Senate Democrats. “There’s no excuse for not having a single one done.” 

Cole suggested that there will either be a yearlong stopgap measure to break the impasse in December, or a shutdown. 

“We’re going to be in a crunch time,” he said. 

Without a stopgap measure, the lack of progress meant a shutdown was all but certain after funding lapses on Sept. 30. In addition to its effects on everyday Americans, a shutdown could have scuttled lawmakers’ campaign plans. Congress is scheduled to be out of session for nearly all of October to allow members to be in their home districts to campaign. 

The House initially passed a GOP-led bill in July to extend funding at current levels until Dec. 4. It passed with little support from House Democrats, who wanted restrictions on Border Patrol funding. The Senate later passed a bipartisan measure to punt the deadline to Dec. 11. That bill included several Democratic demands, including a provision that would close a loophole that Democrats said allowed the Trump administration to transfer funds to Border Patrol, and language that would temporarily prevent political appointees from canceling federal grants. 

Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, encouraged Democrats to support the stopgap measure during their weekly caucus meeting Tuesday morning, according to Rep. Pete Aguilar of California. 

“That’s a big statement from the ranking member,” said Aguilar, the chair of the House Democratic Caucus.