House Passes Spending Bill to Fund Government

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

The House passed a spending bill Friday night that will fund the government through March 14, avoiding a shutdown. The bill passed by a vote of 366-34-1.

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The Hill reports:

The House approved legislation to avert a government shutdown hours before the deadline on Friday, sending the bill to the Senate for consideration after a whirlwind week on Capitol Hill.

The chamber voted 366-34-1 in support of the legislation, clearing the two-thirds threshold needed for passage, since GOP leadership brought the bill to the floor under the fast-track suspension of the rules process. All Democrats except one — Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), who voted present — joined 170 Republicans in voting yes.

It was a marked contrast to the first bill on Wednesday, which clocked in at 1,547 pages and failed. Another 116-page bill also failed on Thursday. The bill that passed was 118 pages long.

"In lieu of the debt ceiling hike, Republicans entered into an agreement to increase the borrowing limit by $1.5 trillion in exchange for $2.5 trillion in net cuts to spending, done through a reconciliation package in the next Congress," The Hill added.

The Senate should vote on the bill Friday night. The deadline to avoid a government shutdown is midnight.

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"The bill notably did not include provisions to address the debt limit sought by President-elect Donald Trump," Just the News reports. "Both sides, however, are likely to claim a victory, as Republicans may point to the final version's vastly reduced size while Democrats may highlight its exclusion of a Trump-desired provision."

Reaction to the bill was mixed.

“We’re legislating by Braille here,” said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a vocal critic of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). “I think this wasn’t handled well, and then I still have all the grievances from last at the beginning of this year, FISA, Ukraine, all of those things. I think there’s going to be a reckoning eventually.”

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This is a developing story. We'll have updates as they become available.

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