The House on Friday approved a stopgap spending measure to keep the government open through late November, a key step towards averting a shutdown and giving lawmakers more time for bipartisan negotiations. But the measure is expected to stall in the Senate, where most Democrats have signaled plans to oppose it as they push Republicans to negotiate over their demands on health care and domestic spending.
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The bill, which passed the House 217 to 212, would extend funding at current levels until Nov. 21. It included $88 million in new money for security across the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, a response to mounting concerns about political violence after the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. It also contained language allowing Washington, D.C. to resume spending its own local funds, after Congress voted in March to block the district from using $1 billion in funds the district had already budgeted.
The real battle now shifts to the Senate, where Democrats are poised to reject the House bill outright in a vote expected Friday afternoon. With Senate Republicans holding a narrow 53–47 majority, at least eight Democratic votes are needed to reach the 60-vote threshold required for passage if all Republicans vote in favor. Most Senate Democrats insist they won’t support the Republican bill; Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania has said he would vote for it.
Though House Republican leaders portrayed the measure as a clean extension that bought time for negotiations, the vote exposed tensions inside the party. Several rank-and-file conservatives complained that they were being asked to endorse what they derided as a “copy” of a spending plan set under Democratic President Joe Biden, a framework they had once rejected.
But pressure from President Donald Trump and top party leaders largely held the conference together. In a post on Truth Social, Trump urged Republicans to “stick TOGETHER to fight back against the Radical Left Democrat demands, and vote ‘YES!’” That appeal, combined with cajoling from Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and senior committee chairs, persuaded many reluctant lawmakers to fall in line. Only two Republicans defected to oppose the measure—Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Victoria Spartz of Indiana. Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, who is up for re-election in a Maine district that President Donald Trump has won in the past three elections, was the only Democrat to vote in favor.
In the House, Republican leaders portrayed the measure as a clean extension that bought time for further negotiations on a broader funding bill. But the House vote exposed some tensions inside the party: ahead of the vote, several rank-and-file conservatives complained that they were being asked to endorse what they derided as a “copy” of a spending plan set under Democratic President Joe Biden, a framework they had once rejected.
But pressure from President Donald Trump and top party leaders appeared to have held the conference together. In a post on Truth Social, Trump urged Republicans to “stick TOGETHER to fight back against the Radical Left Democrat demands, and vote ‘YES!’” Only two Republicans—Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Victoria Spartz of Indiana—opposed the measure. Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, who is up for re-election in a Maine district that Trump won in the past three presidential elections, was the only Democrat to vote in favor.
Democrats have for weeks denounced the House GOP bill for failing to address health care and other priorities. They released an alternative bill that would extend funding only through Oct. 31 but tacks on a range of priorities, including more than $1 trillion in new health care spending through a permanent extension of subsidies under the Affordable Care Act that are set to expire at the end of the year; the reversal of Medicaid cuts enacted in the GOP’s Big, Beautiful Bill; and new guardrails to prevent the Trump Administration from freezing or rescinding money that Congress has approved. Their measure also restores nearly half a billion dollars to public broadcasting, lifts the freeze on foreign aid funding, and boosts congressional security funds by more than the GOP measure.
The Congressional Budget Office has said that the Democratic plan to permanently extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies would increase deficits by nearly $350 billion over the next decade, though around 4 million people would lose coverage starting in 2026 if the credits are to lapse.
“Republicans appear to believe that health care should be a privilege reserved for the wealthy and the well-connected,” said Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York before the vote. “We strongly disagree.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York framed the standoff as a test of whether Republicans would continue to follow Trump’s directives. “Republicans can choose: either listen to Donald Trump and shut the government down, or break this logjam by supporting our bill and keeping the government open,” he said on the Senate floor.
But hanging in the balance is a looming deadline that federal workers and agencies are closely following. Current funding for the government is set to expire on Sept. 30. If neither chamber can agree on a plan before then, large swaths of the government will shut down, forcing hundreds of thousands of federal employees to work without pay or be furloughed.
“It’s gonna be funding the government through a clean, short term continuing resolution, or a government shutdown, and that’s the choice the Democrats have,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said Friday.
The looming vote in the Senate also revives painful memories for Democrats of the previous government funding clash in March, when enough of them joined Republicans to extend funding through the end of the fiscal year without major concessions. That decision, intended to avoid a shutdown, drew fierce backlash from the party’s base, which accused Schumer and others of caving to Trump. Following that vote, Schumer had to cancel a book tour due to security threats, and progressive activists warned him of primary challenges.
But this time, he insists, is different. “Democrats are unified,” Schumer said. “We have been strong on the same message for a very long time, which is: We need to help the American people lower their costs, particularly on health care.”
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.