WASHINGTON — House Republicans voted Tuesday to advance a funding package to end the brief government shutdown that began Saturday, putting the legislation on track to pass the full chamber.
A procedural vote of 217-215 tees up a final passage vote later in the afternoon, which requires a simple majority of the House before it can go to President Donald Trump to be signed into law. Trump has said he will sign it “immediately.”
The legislation will ensure full-year funding for the federal government through the end of September, with the lone exception of the Department of Homeland Security, which is put on a two-week leash as Democrats insist on changes after federal agents fatally shot two Americans in Minneapolis.
A vote on the bill was delayed by one day after Democrats privately indicated they wouldn’t provide the large number of votes needed to fast-track it on Monday. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., had not indicated how he would vote, but said his members had “a variety of perspectives” on it.
After a conference meeting on Tuesday, Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., would not say how she’d vote on the bill when asked about it before the procedural vote.
The “rule” vote provided some drama as the House GOP’s one-vote margin showed its challenges. It was held open for an extended period when Rep. John Rose, R-Tenn., unexpectedly joined Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., in voting against it. Massie has held his ground against spending bills and was seen as all but impossible to flip. Rose, who complained that the Senate wasn’t doing enough to pass the SAVE Act, which mandates proof of citizenship to vote, eventually flipped to “yes.”
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the party’s lead funding negotiator in the House, said she will vote for the bill and predicted it would pass. She said she spoke up in favor of the bill inside the meeting, as did other Democrats.
“I believe this is an opportunity to isolate DHS and go at it, hammer and tongs, tooth and nail — whatever phrase you want to use, rather than having to figure out what the heck is going to happen to five other bills and all those departments,” DeLauro said. “There’s unbelievable bipartisan, bicameral support on those bills. So why squander that? And then take the next 10 days, next Friday, and just bring DHS up.”
The deal to punt on DHS funds for two weeks, alongside the other funding bills, was negotiated between Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the White House after the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti sparked a national outcry.
After the Senate passed the package last Friday by a vote of 71-29, Trump gave it a boost with House Republicans by calling on lawmakers to pass it as written, stamping out demands by some in the party to make changes.
The measure tees up a frantic 10-day window for Congress to negotiate a DHS funding agreement as Democrats demand reforms to rein in ICE and CBP.
The new deadline when DHS funding will expire is Feb. 13.
Securing a bipartisan deal will be a tall order.
Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, said it will be “very difficult” to secure a DHS funding deal by the next deadline.
“There are vast differences,” he said. “I would expect — and I’m hearing that there could be just another, we kick the can down the road a little bit longer until those differences can be worked out … at least, probably, March 1.”
Brennan Leach and Kyle Stewart contributed.