The GOP-led House voted on Thursday to pass another short-term spending bill to avert a government shutdown over the objection of a group of conservative members who were angling to get border security reforms attached and rein in the national debt.
By a 314-108 tally, which was bipartisan, the lower chamber approved a measure to fund the various federal agencies in two stages: some through March 1 and others through March 8. Because the Democrat-controlled Senate already passed the spending legislation by a 77-18 vote, the bill now heads to the White House, where President Joe Biden will likely sign it.
The stop-gap spending measure will give lawmakers more time to hash out their differences on fiscal 2024 legislation that has already been pushed back multiple times. The latest deadline for a prior two-step continuing resolution was set to be the end of Friday, but further votes this week are getting canceled with a winter storm in the forecast for Washington, D.C.
Senators overcame the 60-vote threshold to pass the legislation earlier on Thursday after they voted 50-44 to reject an amendment offered by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) to restrain aid to the Palestinians until all hostages abducted by Hamas in the terrorist attacks on Israel are released and other conditions.
In the House, 207 Democrats joined with 107 Republicans to achieve the two-thirds majority vote necessary to pass the bill. Two Democrats and 106 Republicans, including House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY), voted against the measure while 11 members did not vote.
Members of the conservative Freedom Caucus pushed GOP leadership to tack on border security policy changes, but to no avail. The group released an “official position” urging Republicans to “uphold commitments to end inflationary spending and secure the border” and specifically called on conservatives to “oppose the Johnson-Schumer CR.”
The leaders referenced by the Freedom Caucus, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), joined other top members of Congress for a meeting with Biden at the White House on Wednesday to discuss a national security funding request for U.S. allies such as Ukraine and Israel as well as border security while a bipartisan group of senators try to hash out an immigration deal.
“I told President Biden: it’s on you,” Johnson said in a post to X. “Your policies created the border crisis. Your executive action can end it. House Republicans will continue to demand transformative policy change and hold this administration accountable until the border is secure.”