Gov. Spending Bill Heads To Senate After Passing The House

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a stopgap bill to fund the government through early December, which House Republicans were scrambling to pass ahead of the midterm elections in November and to avoid yet another government shutdown, which they are still desperately trying to blame Democrats for, despite controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress (for now).

According to the Washington Post, the resolution, which would fund the government through Dec. 4, passed 220-205 on Tuesday, mostly along party lines, with the exception of six Democrats who joined their Republican colleagues in favor of it.

We’ll get into why most House Democrats opposed the bill in a second, but first, let’s talk about how those who crossed the political aisle didn’t stop Republican leaders from throwing shade at them by resurrecting the notion that the government shutdown and partial government shutdown that have happened during President Donald Trump’s second term, and while the GOP have House and Senate majorities was all the doing of the blue party.

“Our conference refuses to let the obstruction and inaction of Senate Democrats trigger another manufactured shutdown at the end of September. That is why we are acting before a funding lapse crisis, not in response to it,” said Tom Cole, the House appropriations committee chair who led the resolution, as the Guardian reported.

Last October, when what would become the longest government shutdown in U.S. history — beating out the second-longest shutdown, which happened during Trump’s first term — began, the GOP and Trump administration were so desperate to spread the word that Democrats were at fault that Trump had virtually every federal government website parroting that narrative. And since the shutdown heavily hindered air travel, the administration tried to put propaganda videos of former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem blaming the shutdown on Democrats, although many airports across the nation refused to air it. None of it worked, of course, as most citizens still blamed Trump and the majority party.

In February, Congress passed a spending bill to avoid a second full government shutdown, having already found itself in the midst of a partial shutdown. For that to pass, Republicans had to compromise Trump’s chaotic and cruel mass deportation agenda by setting aside funding for ICE, which has lost favorability with most people, especially after the shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, and the government’s attempt to smear the victims as “domestic terrorists.” (Spoiler alert: things have only gotten worse with ICE since then.)

The controversy surrounding ICE is still a point of contention between the two parties, and a major factor in why Democrats opposed Tuesday’s bill. Meanwhile, some Republicans were holding up progress while trying to force Trump’s precious SAVE America Act, which the president is still promoting election fraud propaganda to justify — propaganda that still isn’t working.

From NPR:

House Republican hard-liners have lately been holding up legislation in a so far fruitless effort to pressure their Senate colleagues into passing President Trump’s election overhaul bill, the SAVE America Act. The legislation would require voters to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote and photo ID when casting a ballot. After some speculation the government funding bill could be caught up in that fight, the lawmakers let it proceed without incident.

Democratic leaders opposed the funding extension, writing in a statement that the bill “fails to block funding for Donald Trump’s violent mass deportation machine.”

“Their my-way-or-the-highway approach has consistently failed to address the high cost of living or meet the needs of the American people,” said Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., criticized Democrats ahead of the vote for their opposition to the funding plan. 

“They do this to try to score political points. I think they’re making the wrong calculation here,” Johnson said. 

What Johnson, who has been grappling with infighting in his own party for months now, won’t say out loud is that Republicans are more desperate to pass this bill ahead of the midterms than their political rivals are, as they have already seen two shutdowns on their watch, and it would look bad for them to suffer a third, when they are already projected to lose big in November.

So, now, the bill heads to the Senate, “where it will require Democratic support to clear the 60-vote threshold required to pass most legislation through the chamber,” as NPR reported.

So, we shall see.

SEE ALSO:

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Government Spending Bill Heads To The Senate After Passing In The House, Mostly Along Party Lines was originally published on newsone.com