House GOP leaders are switching up their strategy for passing a stopgap funding patch to head off a government shutdown, after conservative opposition threatened to block floor debate.
A funding lapse remains unlikely, since the compromise spending bill is still expected to pass the House and Senate with bipartisan support before federal funding expires at midnight Monday.
But the House’s pivot on the first procedural step is another hiccup in Speaker Mike Johnson’s weekslong effort to balance centrist calls for averting a preelection shutdown with former President Donald Trump’s support for a funding standoff over noncitizen voting restrictions.
House Republican leaders now plan to “suspend the rules” for passing the bill midweek, shrinking debate to 40 minutes and requiring a two-thirds threshold for passage. This comes as conservative lawmakers were threatening to oppose teeing up debate.
“One way or the other, the bill is going to get to the floor, in my opinion. And when it does, it’ll pass,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told reporters Monday night as the House panel that sets up floor debate was preparing to scrap the initial plan for passage.
“It’ll pass with a big, bipartisan vote,” Cole added.
The nearly 12-week funding patch, which will punt the government shutdown deadline to Dec. 20, is also expected to pass the Senate with overwhelming support. But the measure could be delayed for days once the House sends it across the Capitol, where Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will need to clinch a time agreement to speed up debate if the measure is going to clear Congress before the Monday night deadline.
The Senate’s top Republican appropriator, Maine’s Susan Collins, said it’s difficult to predict timing for final passage. “My goal is to prevent a government shutdown,” Collins told reporters Monday night. “And to do that, we need to fast-track” the funding patch.
There will be “plenty of time” for lawmakers to debate funding issues once final funding negotiations begin after Election Day, Collins said.
