House Republicans on Friday afternoon teed up a vote on yet another stopgap funding bill, but the odds of success remained uncertain with just hours to go before the midnight deadline.
The GOP conference agreed during a closed-door meeting to move forward with a package that resembles the one Republican leaders rushed to the floor Thursday. It would punt the funding deadline to March 14 and include disaster relief, farm aid and a farm bill extension. However, it would not include a suspension of the debt limit.
The House was expected to take the bill up under fast-track procedures requiring a two-thirds’ majority for passage, meaning Democratic support would be necessary.
Democrats had yet to telegraph their position on the proposal. Many of them had said earlier Friday that they still preferred the bipartisan deal that Democratic and Republican leaders had agreed to earlier in the week.
But the $100 billion in disaster assistance, the $10 billion in economic aid for struggling farmers and the extension of the farm bill — plus the bipartisan desire to avoid a shutdown before the holidays — could be enough to propel the bill across the finish line.
“We think 90 percent of the Democrats are going to buy into this. All the stuff needed, they agreed to it already. We took off the debt ceiling part, and we’ll just worry about that in the next Congress,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told reporters. “For somebody to vote against what we’re going to vote on here … that means they just want a shutdown.”
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) told reporters that House Republicans and President-elect Donald Trump made a “handshake agreement” to deal with the debt limit issue through the reconciliation process next year.
Some conservatives, who had bashed the original bipartisan funding compromise for including Democratic priorities, said the new, more narrow proposal assuaged many of their concerns about spending.
And some farm-district Democrats who would be loath to allow the government to shut down without securing aid for farmers hurt by crop losses and natural disasters appeared somewhat open to the idea Friday afternoon.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), who voted “present” on the continuing resolution considered Thursday, told CNN she “would consider it.”
The broader disaster relief package is also a critical piece for members of both parties. Florida Rep. Kathy Castor was one of only two Democrats who voted for the Republican stopgap Thursday night, attributing her vote to her desire to see disaster aid approved.
Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) said that without disaster and farm aid in the final package, the bill “will not pass.”
House passage Friday afternoon would send the bill to the Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) would have to secure an agreement to limit debate in order to quickly hold a vote.
Similar dynamics in the upper chamber — bipartisan support for disaster relief and farm aid — could grease the skids for a deal.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said he trusts House Speaker “Mike Johnson and [Senate Minority Leader] John Thune to negotiate a process that respects the sensibilities of the legislative branch but still gets essential stuff through,” including a short-term extension of the National Flood Insurance Program.
Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said some of the pending disaster aid would go toward alleviating burdens still felt in his home state, including among farmers.
“It is crucial for Vermont and for many other states,” said Welch, who was elected from the House in 2022. “One of the high points in my time here has been with folks like [North Carolina GOP Sens.] Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, who got hammered with Hurricane Helene, and people came together to get that relief in the bill.”
Reporters Garrett Downs and Emma Dumain contributed.
