By David Morgan and Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday cleared the way for a vote later this week on a stopgap funding measure to avert a partial federal government shutdown in two weeks.
Lawmakers voted 216-210 to approve a measure allowing the House to open debate on the stopgap legislation, which would provide funding for federal agencies through November 21, giving the House and Senate additional time to reach agreement on full-scale appropriations bills for fiscal year 2026, which begins on October 1.
The stopgap also includes $88 million to bolster security for members of Congress, the Supreme Court and the executive branch following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The annual funding debate covers only about one-quarter of the federal government’s $7 trillion budget, which also includes mandatory programs such as Social Security and Medicare, as well as payments on the nation’s $37.5 trillion debt.
Republicans hope to pass the stopgap bill by Friday and send it on to the Senate, which would also have to approve the measure before Republican President Donald Trump could sign it into law.
But in the Senate, which Republicans control by 53-47 seats, the stopgap measure known as a continuing resolution or “CR” needs 60 votes for passage but faces opposition from Democrats, who have threatened to withhold their support from what they consider a partisan Republican bill.
Democrats have instead been considering their own legislation to keep the government open, which would include healthcare provisions that Republicans have vowed to reject.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in an interview on NBC’s “Morning Joe” program that the Democratic proposal on the verge of being made public “would protect the needs of Americans” while also averting government shutdowns at the end of this fiscal year.
In a speech to the Senate following that interview, Schumer said the measure would be of “short duration,” but did not provide the precise end date.
He added it would address “healthcare costs and cuts by preventing premiums from going up, by restoring and extending congressional funds” that have been withheld by the Trump administration.
For months now, congressional Democrats have been pushing for an extension of an Affordable Care Act tax credit that is expiring. Republicans have countered that this temporary funding bill was not the place for such a fix.
“I don’t think Democrats are going to get very far with this one,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in a Senate speech, as the two sides dug in, at least for now, on their respective positions.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan, David Morgan, Nolan McCaskill and Katharine Jackson; Editing by Scott Malone, Daniel Wallis and Kim Coghill)
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