The Senate passed a last-ditch stop-gap spending bill late Saturday night, averting a government shutdown only a few hours before the deadline.
After a roll-call vote, the bill succeeded with 88 senators in favor and nine opposed. Under Senate requirements, 60 votes were needed for the vote to pass. President Biden is expected to immediately sign the bill. Democratic Senator Bennet had delayed voting earlier in the day over objections to the bill’s lack of additional aid for Ukraine, according to multiple outlets.
On Saturday afternoon, the measure, called a continuing resolution (CR), succeeded in the House after the embattled speaker secured enough Democratic support to overcome the opposition of GOP hardliners. The bill, which funds the government for 45 days while negotiations over a long-term spending bill continue, was approved in the House 335-91. Democrats who voted in favor totaled 209, more than compensating for the 90 Republicans who voted against it.
McCarthy needed the support of scores of Democrats to pass the bill in the House, given the two-thirds majority required to pass legislation under suspension of the rules. Though the Democratic caucus balked at the lack of additional Ukraine aid in the bill, enough members got on board as debate concluded Saturday. However, Democratic leadership in the House insisted the Ukraine aid issue be raised again in subsequent proceedings.
“When the House returns, we expect Speaker McCarthy to advance a bill to the House Floor for an up-or-down vote that supports Ukraine, consistent with his commitment to making sure that Vladimir Putin, Russia and authoritarianism are defeated. We must stand with the Ukrainian people until victory is won,” House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and other colleagues wrote in a statement.
McCarthy faced a lot of pressure from within his caucus to not pursue a CR throughout the multi-day proceedings. A group of House Freedom Caucus hardliners led by Representative Matt Gaetz have long vowed to force a vote of no confidence if McCarthy tried to work around them to pass a short-term spending bill.
“What I am asking, Republicans and Democrats alike, put your partisanship away,” McCarthy said. “Focus on the American public.”
The GOP holdouts, who made McCarthy’s ascension to the speakership a grueling uphill battle, say they’re motivated by process concerns and have insisted on passing individual bills to fund various parts of the government, a departure from the status quo in which the entire government is funded through one massive, omnibus spending bill.
“Do these things or face a motion to vacate the chair,” Gaetz said on the House floor on September 12, warning that McCarthy could face daily votes of no confidence.
“If we have to begin every single day in Congress with the prayer, the pledge, and the motion to vacate then so be it,” Gaetz told reporters earlier this month.
Reaching across the aisle, Gaetz has also been trying to recruit Democrats to join the McCarthy ouster plot, a House Democrat told CNN.
In response, McCarthy said Saturday that “if I have to risk my job standing up for the American public, I will do it.”