House approves legislation 366-34, though timeline on Senate vote remains uncertain with hours to go before funding lapses
The US House of Representatives approved a short-term spending bill Friday that would fund the government through March 14, sending the measure to the Senate where the timing of a vote remains unclear.
The House approved the bill 366-34 with strong support from Democrats and Republicans with just hours to go before a midnight deadline to fund the government. That may yet lapse as the Senate has yet to schedule a vote on the legislation, but may not do so quickly to avoid a relatively brief shutdown.
The bill includes $10 billion for American farmers and $100 billion for disaster relief for storm-ravaged states. It comes after President-elect Donald Trump and his top lieutenants, including billionaire Elon Musk, tanked a compromise agreement that was set to pass the House earlier this week with bipartisan support.
It included several provisions that were ultimately stripped from the version that passed late Friday, including funding for pediatric cancer research, pay raises for members of Congress, a crackdown on "junk fees" charged by ticket sellers and hotels, and restrictions on US investment in China.
Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a cancer survivor who is the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said Musk's opposition to the original bill was primarily motivated by his economic interests in China.
"He clearly does not want to have to answer any questions about how much he plans to expand his businesses in China, and how many American technologies he plans to sell to the highest bidder," she said. "He has spent the last few years cozying up to the Chinese Communist Party to protect his own business interests. The fight is not over."
The bill that cleared the House ultimately forewent a demand from Trump to lift the debt ceiling -- the amount of money the federal government is allowed to borrow. That provision caused dozens of Republicans to break ranks Thursday when the bill failed in spectacular fashion, sending House Speaker Mike Johnson scrambling to come up with a plan c.
The White House signaled President Joe Biden's support for the spending package that cleared the chamber, saying, "While it does not include everything we sought, it includes disaster relief that the President requested for the communities recovering from the storm, eliminates the accelerated pathway to a tax cut for billionaires, and would ensure that the government can continue to operate at full capacity."
"President Biden supports moving this legislation forward and ensuring that the vital services the government provides for hardworking Americans – from issuing Social Security checks to processing benefits for veterans -- can continue as well as to grant assistance for communities that were impacted by devastating hurricanes," spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
