WASHINGTON – Two months before the midterm elections, the House of Representatives passed a critical three-month government funding bill, sending it to President Donald Trump’s desk and successfully quashing the likelihood of a politically risky shutdown ahead of Election Day.
Despite some opposition from a handful of progressives and hardline conservatives, the stopgap measure, which the Senate already approved in a bipartisan vote in August, overwhelmingly passed the House, too. The Sept. 1 vote was 370-48.
By greenlighting the legislation, Congress checked off what most members agreed was its most important to-do list item before voters head to the polls in November, keeping widely relied-upon government services steady through Dec. 11. The
House took the vote after returning from more than a monthlong recess.
While lawmakers on Capitol Hill have many more items to check off in the coming weeks – among them clearing fall deadlines for key transportation legislation and a farm bill – there’s little time to get those (and other) things fully done. Both chambers are scheduled to be out on the campaign trail and in their home districts for much of October.
Fourteen members didn't vote on the Sept. 1 funding bill, underlining what could be attendance problems this month in the chamber, which already has razor-thin margins.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who heads the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the temporary funding extension would give lawmakers time to approve more detailed spending legislation. She and her Democratic counterpart, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, fought to include a provision in the bill that temporarily blocks the Trump administration from implementing rules that would give political appointees vast new power over federal grants.
Contributing: Bart Jansen
Zachary Schermele is the congressional correspondent for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: House successfully averts government shutdown before midterm elections
