Dramatic, the Republicans of the House of Representatives approved a bill to finance the government until the end of September 2025, a great victory for President Mike Johnson, who has previously depended on the Democrats for bipartisan support to avoid a closure.
The Chamber voted 217-213 to approve the bill of expenses, known as a continuous resolution, days before some funds are exhausted.
After the vote of the Chamber, which saw only a republican dropout, Johnson thanked President Donald Trump, who helped convince the Holdouts of the Republican Party to support the bill.
“We are united in our mission of delivering the first agenda of America,” said Johnson In an X post.
The bill of expenses is now addressed to the Senate, where it requires that 60 votes be approved, and its destination is uncertain.
The approval of the Chamber has left the Senate Democrats divided into the “solid” decision ahead.
What will the Senate Democrats do?
“Actually, there are only two options: one is to vote for a evil evil. Or the other is to vote for a potentially worse closure,” said Senator Angus King, I-maine, after the camera vote. “So it’s a very difficult choice,”
The Democrats gathered for two hours on Tuesday without consensus on how they planned to handle the vote on the bill, and the fissure is palpable.
Some Democrats clearly incline towards the issuance of a painful vote to oppose the package of the House of Representatives and effectively close the government.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a mass democrat, described the CR of the House of Representatives as a “closing bill” for which Republicans will assume responsibility in a speech on the floor on Tuesday night.
“A budget is a reflection of our values,” Warren said on the floor. “This proposal makes clear the glass where the values of the Republicans are found. After months of bipartisan conversations, they are moving away from the negotiating table and offering a bill of the House of Representatives that forces us to the edge of a complete government closure. The republican plays book is dangerous, and will harm the working families.”
Although he did not expressly express how he plans to vote in the package, he said that the Democrats of the House of Representatives were right by opposing the measure and said that the Senate should do the same.
“The Democrats in the Chamber have shown us that they are united,” Warren said, when asked if the Senate Democrats should be united in their opposition to the camera package. “Why should it be different in the Senate?”
Separately, the leader of the minority of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, suggested on Tuesday that Senate Democrats should oppose the measure.
“The strong democratic vote of the House of Representatives in opposition to this reckless republican spending bill speaks for himself,” Jeffries said.
Senate dem: vote ‘like a bad dream’
Pointing to the “marked” Senate Democrats, King said he is concerned that the “unknown” territory of a closure under the new Trump administration that has already fired federal employees.
“A closure is an unknown territory when you have an administration that, at least in some way, would probably welcome a closure because that would give the President an almost unlimited power: decide who is essential who is not not essential, folding agencies,” King said. “So that is the dilemma that is being discussed.”
The house has left the city during the week after approving its invoice. If the Democrats in the Senate want to avoid a closure on Friday night, they will have to provide at least eight votes to do so, with Republican Senator Rand Paul already stating that he will oppose the package.
It is not clear what route they ultimately choose, but some members are clearly full of the election.
“They made a lot of changes, I want to see what they are changing,” Senator John Hickenlooper, D-Colo. saying.
“I’m not happy … it’s one of those things once we go through it, he will feel like a bad dream. I have to go through that.”
Voting of the House of Representatives: 1 Republican ‘No’, 1 Democrat ‘Yes’
In the vote of the Chamber, Kentucky’s republican representative, Thomas Massie, voted no, despite the president’s pressure in the form of a primary threat. In a real social position on Monday, Trump suggested that the dropout justified to set up a main campaign against Massie.
To approve the measure on Tuesday afternoon, Johnson trusted some republican support for Republicans who had never voted in favor of a continuous resolution.
The representative Jared Golden was the only Democrat who voted with the Republicans. All other Democrats voted against the measure, with a preview of the Senate Democrats.
“This CR is not perfect, but a closure would be worse. Even a brief off would introduce even more chaos and uncertainty at a time when our country can mood it,” Golden published in X.
He also criticized the Democrats for using what he called “messaging tricks” about the bill.
The bill finances the Government at the current levels until September 30, 2025.
The president of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, speaks during a press conference before a possible budget vote in the United States Capitol in Washington, on March 11, 2025.
Nathan Howard/Reuters
What is in the invoice?
The 99 pages bill generally decreases in the financing levels last year, but increases the army spending by approximately $ 6 billion.
While there are an additional $ 6 billion for the medical care of veterans, non -defensive spending is approximately $ 13 billion lower than fiscal year 2024.
The legislation neglects emergency funds for disasters, but provides an impulse in the financing of immigration deportation and customs deportation operations.
It also increases financing for WIC by approximately $ 500 million, a program that provides free groceries to low -income women and children.
Now that the Chamber has sent its bill to the Senate, it is not yet clear how it will go, since it will require significant bipartisan support to pass the upper chamber.
The vote was a great proof of Johnson’s leadership
The expense bill was an important evidence for Johnson. In the absence of democratic support, Johnson could only afford to lose a republican vote before a second dropout kill the bill.
In a statement after the vote, Johnson said the Republicans “defended the American people” and criticized the Democrats who, according to him, “decided to duplicate partisan policy.”
Johnson had crucial allies in Trump and vice president JD Vance, who pressed the Republicans of the House of Representatives to underpin the support before the vote.
In the last hours before Tuesday’s vote, Trump worked the phones, reaching the Republicans of the House of Representatives who remained undecided.
On Tuesday morning, Vance attended a meeting of the Conference of the House of Domains where he urged the Republicans of the House of Representatives to be on board with the vote and emphasized the importance of not closing the government, members told ABC News.
Government financing is scheduled for the end of the day on Friday, March 14.
