The U.S. Capitol on the evening of September 30, 2025. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed an emergency budget bill intended to keep the government running through the fall, sending it to the Senate, where lawmakers expect to revise the measure.
Congress must pass government funding legislation before the start of the recent fiscal year on October 1 to avoid a shutdown just weeks before the November midterm elections.
The 220-205 The party-line majority represents House Republicans’ opening salvo in negotiations, although they will be unable to advance in the Senate without Democratic support.
House Speaker Tom Cole, R-Okla., said during floor debate that GOP leaders are hoping for passage the emergency spending bill Months before the start of the next financial year, another closure will be avoided.
(*1*) Cole said. “It contains no poison pills or partisan riders. It prevents harmful disruptions to our national security and the vital programs our constituents depend on.”
Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the committee’s ranking member, rejected the stopgap measure, saying it would “allow Homeland Secretary (Markwayne) Mullin to transfer billions of dollars to the Border Patrol.”
Republicans, she said, “refused” to change that aspect of the bill after Democrats provided “common language to address the issue.”
“We cannot in good conscience allow billions of dollars to flow to these agencies without comprehensive reforms to protect our constituents from further violence,” DeLauro said.
Democrats don’t want a government shutdown, but they also don’t want to “rush” the process and leave out the list of anomalies just presented by the White House, she said.
These adjustments to funding levels are typically included in stopgap bills, but were not included in the House Republicans’ measure because it was written before the White House sent a list of requested anomalies to lawmakers on Monday.
“The agencies have listed over 50 programs that need to take action so that they can be protected during an ongoing resolution,” DeLauro said, using the technical term for a short-term funding proposal.
The changes would support wildfire suppression efforts, housing assistance for tens of thousands and programs that facilitate people in rural communities afford utilities.
“Bringing this bill to the table indiscriminately without careful consideration of the various needs that must be met is no way to govern,” DeLauro said. “And it’s irresponsible.”
Senate expects changes
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, said earlier in the day that she was working with the committee’s top Democrat, Washington Sen. Patty Murray, to draft her own continuing resolution.
“It appears there is good will on the Democratic side to try to pass the CR and avoid a government shutdown, which is always a disaster,” Collins said.
Murray said the House stopgap bill had “issues” that needed to be fixed to get through the Senate.
“We just discovered the anomalies last night and are both trying to figure out how best to deal with them,” Murray said.
Status of funds
Lawmakers will have to rely on a stopgap spending bill because they will once again fail to complete work on a dozen annual state funding bills before the deadline.
The House of Representatives has passed three of its spending bills. The Senate has not passed a single bill, in part because the committee has not published a single bill. At some point, the two chambers must begin negotiations to agree on the total spending amount for the 12 bills and how that roughly $1.9 trillion will be divided among thousands of federal agencies and programs.
That means the full-year government spending bills would not take effect until at least the lame-duck session, which is scheduled to last about five weeks between the election and the start of the recent Congress in January.
Lawmakers could also pass a series of emergency funding bills instead of completing negotiations on full-year budget bills.
