The House of Representatives on Sept. 19 passed a bill to fund the government through Nov. 21, aiming to avoid a government shutdown.
One Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), joined 216 Republicans to pass the measure, sending it to the Senate. GOP Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) voted against the bill in protest against spending levels that they say are too high.
The government runs out of funding on Oct. 1 as the last day of the fiscal year is Sept. 30. The bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), would fund the government at current levels. It also includes $88 million in security funding for members of Congress, the executive branch, and Supreme Court justices in the wake of the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.
The Senate will vote on the House-passed measure and a competing Democratic stopgap bill on Friday afternoon.
Republicans would need seven Senate Democrats to join them to overcome the filibuster. However, Democrats from both chambers have opposed the GOP bill, saying Republicans did little to consult them in drafting the legislation.
Both measures are expected to fail to advance in the upper chamber on Friday.
Appearing on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Sept. 17, Johnson said that Republicans are trying to go through the usual process of funding the government through appropriations, but more time is needed.
“We’re now forcing the mechanism of a conference committee. …When you have the House and the Senate with the same bills that don’t match exactly, you get a subset of people in those areas of jurisdiction who go into a room and work it out; that’s how the system is supposed to work,” he said.
“So, we’re going to do that again. We’re moving forward productively, but the concern is that we’ve run out of [time] to finish that process. We need a short-term, very clean continuing resolution, to keep the government open so our appropriators can continue to do their work,” he added.
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