Congress averts shutdown with hours to spare, sending funding invoice to Biden’s desk

WASHINGTON — The Home handed laws to maintain the federal government operating till Dec. 16, a closing act of enterprise earlier than each chambers of Congress recess for six weeks till the midterm election.

The Friday vote was 230-201, with 10 Republicans becoming a member of Democrats to cross it.

The invoice, which handed the Senate by a vote of 72-25 on Thursday, now goes to President Joe Biden, who is anticipated to signal it earlier than the midnight deadline to avert a shutdown.

The stopgap measure provides congressional leaders extra time to barter a full-year funding deal, together with a number of different priorities they intend to sort out within the lame-duck session. That features a protection authorization invoice and a bundle of adjustments to election legal guidelines designed to forestall one other Jan. 6-style try and overturn a presidential election.

The invoice consists of $12 billion in help to Ukraine, cash for Afghan refugees, enhanced safety for U.S. courts and a five-year reauthorization of consumer charges for the Meals and Drug Administration.

Home Republican leaders pressured their members to vote towards the laws, indicating a break up between Home Minority Chief Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell, who supported the measure. It’s a signal that must-pass funding measures might get contentious if Republicans seize the Home this fall.

The Senate’s high two appropriators — Committee Chair Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Richard Shelby, R-Ala. — are retiring on the finish of the yr and wish to exit with a bigger funding deal, somewhat than punt the problem into the brand new yr.

Although Congress efficiently saved the federal government open, the session ended on a bitter word for some Home Democrats.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia excoriated get together leaders for failing to name a vote on her TRUST in Congress Act, which might ban members of Congress from buying and selling inventory whereas in workplace. The invoice is aimed toward boosting transparency and battling attainable insider buying and selling by requiring members, in addition to their spouses and dependent youngsters, to place sure belongings in a blind belief.

“This second marks a failure of Home management — and it’s one more instance of why I imagine that the Democratic Celebration wants new leaders within the halls of Capitol Hill, as I’ve lengthy made identified,” stated Spanberger, who faces a tough re-election bid in November. “Reasonably than convey Members of Congress collectively who’re captivated with this problem, management selected to disregard these voices, push them apart, and search for new methods they might string the media and the general public alongside — and evade public criticism.”

Kyle Stewart contributed.