WASHINGTON – House Republicans Friday morning passed a short term stopgap spending bill to run through Nov. 21 that would keep funding at fiscal 2025 levels aside from exceptions including the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons activities.
The final vote was 217-212, with two Republicans voting against the bill and one Democrat voting for the bill.
Keeping spending at fiscal 2025 levels might temporarily help DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, which was funded at about $8.5 billion in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. A House-passed version of the Energy & Water Appropriations bill would trim that figure to less than $8 billion.
But unless the House and the Senate have to agree to some form of continuing resolution, in lieu of finishing their appropriations bills, by Sept. 30, the government will effectively shut down. Sept. 30 marks the end of fiscal 2025. The Senate could vote as early as Friday after the deadline for the Exchange Monitor.
House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) called the bill a “clean, short-term funding extension” in a statement, with “clean” meaning the bill keeps funding at the same levels as the previous fiscal year, with some exceptions that include the DOE’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the agency in charge of maintaining the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile.