The House voted 222-209 Wednesday to approve a stopgap spending bill that will fund the government until Jan. 30 with a loose promise from the GOP that Congress will negotiate on healthcare once the government reopens.
The continuing resolution (CR), alongside a three-bill spending package, headed to President Donald Trump’s desk for him to sign shortly after the House passed it. The White House indicated Trump’s support for the bill in a statement by the Executive Office of the President.
Six House Democrats voted to pass the bill, while two Republicans voted against the bill. The Republican lawmakers were Reps. Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Gregory Stuebe (Fla.). The Democratic lawmakers were Reps. Jared Golden (Maine), Adam Gray (Calif.), Don Davis (N.C.), Henry Cuellar (Texas), Thomas Suozzi (N.Y.) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.).
Now that the bill is signed into law, government operations including the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, the Office of Environmental Management and the Office of Nuclear Energy, along with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, can return to work.
In the House, Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), a member of the House Appropriations Energy and Water subcommittee whose district abuts the Hanford plant, said the shutdown has resulted in “thousands of employee furloughs,” which include 80% of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s federal workforce.
“As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, the responsibility of funding the federal government is one I take very seriously,” Newhouse said on the House floor Wednesday. “I encourage all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this deal. Vote to end this unnecessary shutdown, and help us get back to the business of hard-working Americans across this country.”
The compromise measure was unveiled and then advanced by the Senate on Sunday, a record 40 days into the shutdown, as a group of moderate Democrats and Independent Angus King (I-Maine) detailed the bipartisan framework which would guarantee backpay for workers furloughed during the funding impasse and sets a goal to vote in December on legislation to address expiring health care subsidies. The Senate then passed the bill Monday, giving the House 36 hours notice to return to Washington and vote themselves.