The House of Representatives has passed a temporary measure to keep the federal government’s coffers filled, after weeks of Republican wrangling over the details of the funding proposal.
The dramatic trial forced House Speaker Mike Johnson to walk a political tightrope after former President Donald Trump interfered in the congressional process.
Johnson tried to pass the same funding bill last week, but with a reform bill for illegal immigrants, a special interest of Trump’s, but it failed after Republicans and Democrats voted against it.
Johnson scrapped the wish list and reintroduced the bill to the floor on Wednesday, where it passed by a vote of 341 to 82, with bipartisan support.
The bill, which funds the government through Dec. 20, also includes measures to increase the Secret Service budget by millions in response to two recent assassination attempts on Donald Trump.
House Speaker Mike Johnson walks out of his office at the Capitol
But just hours before Wednesday’s vote, Trump and his team again tried to drum up support for the combination of funding and voting rights. The hill was first reported, indicating that the ex-president tried to thwart the deal at the last minute.
Trump himself reportedly called some of the 14 Republicans in the House of Representatives who previously voted against his favored bill last week.
Many of those who voted against the funding package and the SAVE Act (which would require proof of citizenship for people registering to vote) did not vote against the deal because of the conservative bill.
Many opposed the approved funding levels.
The former president reportedly wanted an addendum to the funding bill on Wednesday that could include restrictions similar to the SAVE Act, The Hill reported.
But the package passed without a vote Wednesday, one of the last votes the House will hold until after the November elections, giving them time to go to their districts to campaign.
Especially those members who are in a neck-and-neck race for re-election are eager to go home and make their views known to the voters.
The measure now goes to the Senate, where it is expected to receive bipartisan support and be passed by the Senate tonight.
Just hours before Wednesday’s vote, Trump and his team were again trying to drum up support for the funding-voting rights combo, The Hill first reported. If the short-term spending bill were successful, it would have been killed.
This also allows senators to leave the city to campaign.
The funding process was accelerated earlier this month when Trump posted on his Truth Social app that Johnson would risk a government shutdown due to the passage of the SAVE Act.
Republicans reasoned that vulnerable Democrats would join them in a bill that would further restrict illegal immigrants’ right to vote in federal elections. They always said that 90 percent of Americans supported this.
However, Johnson’s Trump-inspired move failed after 14 Republicans voted against the measure, including nearly all Democrats.
