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Leah Millis/Reuters
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, spoke to the media Tuesday after meeting with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other Congressional leaders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C.
The House and Senate passed emergency legislation Thursday to avoid a partial government shutdown over the weekend.
To allow additional time for a full-year funding bill to be finalized and passed, this stopgap measure extends funding on a short-term basis and sets two deadlines: March 8 and March 22. It is expected to be. The bill will now be submitted to President Joe Biden and signed into law.
Congress faced two shutdown deadlines: March 1 and March 8. As of late Friday, funding for many key government agencies will expire unless lawmakers pass a stopgap by that time.
The House vote was 320-99, with 113 Republicans voting yes and 97 Republicans voting no. Two Democratic senators voted against the bill. The Senate vote was 77-13.
On Wednesday, Congressional leaders announced an agreement on six spending bills, with a package of full-time bills to be passed by March 8 and the remaining spending bills that fund the rest of the government by March 22. He said it would be finalized and passed by.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has been under intense pressure from the right to fight for a victory for conservatives in the government funding battle, and hardliners were quick to push back against the prospect of a new short-term funding bill.
“The spending process is ugly,” Johnson told reporters on Thursday. “Democracy is ugly. This is the way it has always been, every year, except we introduced some new innovations. We beat the omnibus fever, right? That’s how Washington has been for years. “We’re trying to get the carrier back into serious budgeting and spending reform, which was important to break it down into smaller pieces.”
Johnson also defended his response to the spending talks in a meeting with Republican MPs on Thursday ahead of the vote.
Mr Johnson was forced to terminate the deal because the House of Commons was unable to approve procedures (known as rules) along party lines due to divisions in the Republican Party, people at the meeting said. So he has to rely on Democrats to pass the bill with a two-thirds majority, forcing them to compromise on spending.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who is voting against the temporary bill, slammed the speaker over ending the agreement with Democrats on government funding.
“Well, I brought back the name ‘House of Hypocrites’ because all of our conferences were CR, CR, minibus, omnibus free. And what I heard this morning was… It was just that we were on the third CR… so that we could vote for more than one minibus,” she told CNN’s Manu Raju.
“It’s been a tough six months,” said Florida Rep. Byron Donald, who opposed the chairman’s decision to terminate the agreement.
“I don’t agree with this package,” he told CNN, adding, “You have to build on the fights and build on the strategies in this game. And I don’t think that’s what we accomplished here.”
“Yeah, I think we could have done it better. But I mean, you can’t be a Monday morning quarterback on this,” Johnson said when asked about how he handled the majority. he told CNN at the time. “We are where we are.”
Johnson wins the gavel after conservatives ousted former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in a historic vote last year, leaving the Louisiana Republican facing similar threats to the speakership someday There are doubts as to whether it will.
Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett, one of eight Republicans who voted to expel Mr. McCarthy, opposed the stopgap bill and broader funding deal, but said Mr. Johnson’s situation He said he was sympathetic.
“Of course I didn’t vote for CR. I think we need to pass a budget, but the reality is nobody wants that. And he has a one-vote majority. And he’s up against a wall. He’s going to have to make difficult decisions. I support him. I don’t necessarily support CR,” he told CNN. “The reality is he’s working hard and he’s just doing what he can.”
The six funding bills that lawmakers have agreed to and are expected to pass by March 8 include Agriculture and FDA, Commerce, Justice and Science, Energy and Water Development, Interior, Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, Transportation and Housing. – Includes each department of urban development. .
The remaining six spending bills that lawmakers are scheduled to vote on by March 22 cover defense, financial services and general government, homeland security, occupational health and welfare, the legislative branch, and national and foreign operations. be.
This article and heading have been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Lauren Fox and Manu Raju contributed to this report.
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