US House tries to sidestep Republican impasse with temporary spending bill By Reuters

By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives was poised on Wednesday to avoid a partial government shutdown next week, even as a large number of Republicans were poised to revolt against their leadership for failing to pass new federal spending cuts.

The stopgap funding bill would maintain the government’s current level of about $1.2 trillion in annual discretionary funding through Dec. 20, avoiding the layoffs of thousands of federal workers and the shutdown of a wide range of government services just weeks before the November 5 elections.

House Speaker Mike Johnson plans to use a parliamentary maneuver to pass the legislation, bypassing the House Rules Committee to overcome opposition within his own Republican Party, which holds a 220-212 majority.

If he succeeds, which is expected, the Democratic-majority Senate is expected to vote on the bill on Wednesday and send it to President Joe Biden for signature before current funding expires at midnight on Monday.

A significant number of House Republicans are expected to defy their leader and vote against the measure, after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump previously spoke in favor of a shutdown unless the controversial legislation was attached to the bill spending that barred non-citizens from voting in federal elections, something that is already illegal.

“We’re going to work in a bipartisan way to make sure this gets done,” the No. 1 Democrat said Tuesday. 3 Pete Aguilar to reporters.

Some Republicans expressed frustration in the run-up to Wednesday’s vote on the spending bill known as a “continuing resolution” or “CR.”

“He (Johnson) pledged in conference that we would no longer govern by CRs … here we are. So I’m sure there are a lot of members who are frustrated,” said Republican Rep. Greg Steube.

Right-wing House Republicans pushed for a six-month CR with the election clause attached, but last week failed to pass that bill, which would have been lost in the Senate anyway.

However, some of the most conservative Republicans felt that Johnson and all rank and file Republicans should have fought harder against a Democratic victory, even if it meant a shutdown.

Johnson has repeatedly had to bypass his own caucus to pass critical legislation. In March, the House passed the current funding bill despite 112 Republican no votes.

April brought the approval of nearly $61 billion in new aid to Ukraine, which has been battling a Russian invasion since February 2022. Again, 112 Republicans voted against Johnson’s effort.

The infighting comes after Johnson’s predecessor, then-spokesman Kevin McCarthy, was ousted by right-wing Republicans in a historic vote, punishing him for reaching a bipartisan deal on the spending and debt limit with Biden .

The latter battle will be repeated later this year. Democrats and Republicans will have to negotiate government funding throughout the year. And it faces an even more critical, self-imposed deadline of Jan. 1 to either raise the nation’s debt ceiling or risk defaulting on more than $35 trillion in federal government debt.