House Republicans introduced a temporary funding bill yesterday aimed at keeping the government operational through September, with a vote scheduled this week. However, the measure’s path to passage is uncertain, given the one-week deadline.
The 99-page continuing resolution (CR) proposal includes a modest increase in defense spending, granting the U.S. Department of Defense greater flexibility. Meanwhile, non-defense spending will be reduced, although $6 billion in additional funding will be allocated to veterans’ healthcare, as detailed by House Republican leadership staff.
The CR does not feature any new spending, excluding emergency funding, disaster designations, or community project funding.
The bill will be presented to the House Rules Committee on Monday, and a vote on the floor is expected Tuesday.
President Trump expressed support for the proposed funding bill on social media, calling it “very good” under the circumstances. He urged GOP members to remain unified and vote “yes” in the upcoming vote.
“Democrats will do anything they can to shut down our Government, and we can’t let that happen,” he stated on Truth Social.
With a March 14 deadline looming to fund the government, House Republicans are proceeding with a plan to maintain current spending levels for the next six months. However, many Democrats, who have previously assisted in preventing government shutdowns, are reluctant to back the GOP’s proposal this time. In response, Speaker Mike Johnson is working to gain support from consistent Republican holdouts—conservatives who oppose stopgap measures on principle.
Several of these hardliners met with President Trump at the White House on Wednesday. Following the meeting, Trump praised the bill on Truth Social, claiming that “Conservatives will love this Bill” and encouraging Republicans to pass it.
Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican known for opposing continuing resolutions, commented to reporters on Thursday that the president believes a CR is necessary to “stop Democrats from playing games.”
“You’re telling me as a conservative, you’re going to freeze spending for six months, hold the defense hawks at bay, get everybody in a room and keep getting DOGE transparency and demonstrating all the waste, fraud and abuse that we can then use to go inform FY ’26,” Roy said. “I’m good with that.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, expressed confidence on Thursday that the resolution would garner sufficient votes, noting that he doesn’t anticipate any additional no votes aside from Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky.
Johnson mentioned that “there’s a couple of people who have remaining questions, as always,” adding that once members have reviewed the bill text, they will have the opportunity to address their concerns.
On the issue of Democratic support, Johnson expressed hope that they would back the stopgap measure, calling it “the responsible thing” to keep the government funded.
“If it’s a clean CR with minimal anomalies that are necessary, I don’t know how they have an argument to vote against it,” Johnson remarked.
A vote on the temporary funding measure is expected by Tuesday. Meanwhile, House Democratic leaders made clear their opposition to the “partisan” stopgap measure, arguing that it would “threaten to cut funding for healthcare, nutritional assistance, and veterans benefits through the end of the current fiscal year.”
“That is not acceptable,” they wrote in a letter to the Democratic caucus on Friday. “House Democrats would enthusiastically support a bill that protects Social Security, Medicare, veterans health and Medicaid, but Republicans have chosen to put them on the chopping block to pay for billionaire tax cuts. We cannot back a measure that rips away life-sustaining healthcare and retirement benefits from everyday Americans as part of the Republican scheme to pay for massive tax cuts for their wealthy donors like Elon Musk. Medicaid is our redline.”
House Democrats are scheduled to meet this week in advance of the anticipated vote.
{Matzav.com}

The post House GOP Unveils 6-Month Stopgap Bill to Avert Shutdown first appeared on Matzav.com.