House approves three-month continuing resolution as Senate looks to vote by end of day

WASHINGTON — The House today pushed forward a stopgap funding bill that will keep the US government operating through December, passing the bill in a 341-82 vote.

The bill now moves to the Senate, where it is expected to sail through in a vote later today. Government funding expires at the end of Sept. 30, when fiscal 2025 starts. 

The continuing resolution adopted by the House extends federal funding through Dec. 20, but pared down most “anomalies” that would have pledged additional dollars to tackle specific challenges at the Defense Department or other agencies. For instance, the bill does not include an additional $2 billion sought by the White House for Virginia-class submarine construction or the extension or Presidential Drawdown Authority to provide military aid to Ukraine.

“Like most, my preference would be to pass full-year appropriations bills through regular order, but we are out of time,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Cole said in a speech on the floor ahead of the vote.  We cannot afford a shutdown, which would be greatly damaging to our national security, to critical government programs, and to the American people.”

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the committee’s top Democrat, said that while funding the government through a CR was not an ideal solution, the bare-bones CR is a “responsible and sober measure” that avoids the problems that would have been prompted by a longer, six-month bill.

House Speaker Mike Johnson originally sought to push through a six-month version of the CR, which included additional money for submarines — as well as the SAVE Act, a conservative voter ID bill that Democrats said was a nonstarter. The move was criticized by defense hawks who contended that the CR should be kept to calendar year 2025 to minimize impact on national security priorities, with House Armed Services Committee chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., joining roughly a dozen other Republicans to defeat the bill in the House last week. 

On Sunday, Johnson put forward a much more minimalist, three-month CR without the SAVE Act attached, garnering praise from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who signaled that Democrats would approve the bill. 

Ultimately, Republicans made up the 82 votes against the measure.

On Monday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said that the CR would bypass the House Rules Committee and go directly to the floor under a “suspension of the rules” that mandates a two-thirds majority for passage. 

A day later, Schumer said the Senate would bring the bill to the floor without amendments for a vote directly after House approval on Wednesday.

Defense Department and military leaders have warned that a long term continuing resolution — particularly a six-month bill — could delay key modernization efforts, including planned increases to munitions production, the B-21 bomber program and the Columbia-class submarine.