With mere hours to go before the deadline, the House of Representatives on Friday passed a government funding bill that will allow Washington to avoid a shutdown.
The bill headed to the Senate for a vote soon after, after which it’s expected to hit President Joe Biden’s desk for a sign-off.
The bill passed 366-34, with the opposition coming from the GOP camp and one member voting present.
The new version of the plan, which was cobbled together by Republicans following outcry from President-elect Donald Trump and incoming Vice President J.D. Vance, among others, strips away a number of provisions that conservative Republicans characterized as extraneous.
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The final, slimmed-down bill text does not contain the five-year extension to the Haiti HOPE-HELP trade preference programs featured in Tuesday’s version. It does contain full federal funding for the rebuilding of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, which collapsed in March after a container ship slammed into one of its support columns. It also maintains an extension of the farm bill and a $100-billion relief package for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and victims of recent natural disasters, like the multiple hurricanes that pummeled Florida this fall.
While Trump lobbied hard for a debt limit extension as a part of the package, telling Republicans that they should vote against the bill if the issue wasn’t addressed, he didn’t get his wish. Earlier in the week, he threatened any sitting Member of Congress with a primary challenge if they voted for a bill without a debt limit extension, but as the deadline loomed dangerously close, it was scrapped.
“We are really grateful that tonight, in bipartisan fashion, with overwhelming majority of votes, we passed the American Relief Act of 2025. This is a very important piece of legislation,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Friday following the vote. “It funds the government, of course, until March of 2025; that was a big priority for us.”
Trump acolyte and newly anointed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) lead Elon Musk praised a beleaguered Johnson on Friday evening, tweeting, “The Speaker did a good job here, given the circumstances. It went from a bill that weighed pounds to a bill that weighed ounces. Ball should now be in the Dem court.”
