After a day of total procedural hijinks, the Senate is now poised to pass the government funding bills in the early morning hours of Saturday, having struck an eleventh-hour amendment agreement to allow expedited passage of the bill.
Majority Leader Schumer announced the agreement on the floor early Saturday morning.
A view of the U.S. Capitol dome in Washington, D.C., March 21, 2024.
Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters
“It’s been a very long and difficult day but we have just reached an agreement to complete the job of funding the government. It is good for the country that we have reached this bipartisan deal it wasn’t easy but tonight our persistence has been worth it,” Schumer said. “It is good for the American people that we have reached an agreement to fund the government tonight.”
The White House said shortly after midnight that the Office of Management and Budget ceased its shutdown preparations, citing “a high degree of confidence” that Congress will “imminently pass” funding bills to keep the government open.
President Joe Biden will sign the legislation on Saturday, the White House added.
“Because obligations of federal funds are incurred and tracked on a daily basis, agencies will not shut down and may continue their normal operations,” the White House said.
The Senate will likely complete its work some time around the 2 or 3 a.m. hour and will then send the bills to Biden’s desk.
The bills passed in a House 286-134 vote earlier Friday afternoon, despite pushback from far-right members of the Republican caucus. More Democrats backed the bill than Republicans as more than 100 GOP lawmakers voted against it.
The $1.2 trillion package — considered a major bipartisan effort in the highly divided House — provides funding for six bills including Defense, Financial Services, Homeland Security, Labor and Health and Human Services and Education, Legislative Branch and State and Foreign Operations.
If the package is passed by both chambers, the government will be funded through the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30. It will also put an end to the continuing resolution cycle that has led to Congress nearly shutting the government down, at least partially, five times since October.
The government funding package was introduced in the House under suspension of the rules, which required a two-thirds majority vote for passage. That meant, yet again, House Speaker Mike Johnson needed to rely on Democrats to get the bills across the finish line — a move that landed his predecessor Kevin McCarthy in hot water and led to his ouster as speaker last year.
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., took to the floor during an hour of debate to urge lawmakers to vote yes.
“This is a good result for the American people in terms of standing up for their health, their safety, their education, their national security protection and, of course, above all else, their economic wellbeing,” Jeffries said.
