The Senate approved a bipartisan resolution to extend government funding into the winter, notching a major win for party leaders before they leave town for a five-week recess.
Senators voted 90-6 in a late-night vote to delay the federal funding deadline from Oct. 1 to Dec. 11 in an effort to avoid another government shutdown fight ahead of the midterm elections. The proposal passed with massive bipartisan support, and both Utah Sens. Mike Lee and John Curtis voted in favor of the measure.
The agreement comes after days of negotiations among Senate Republicans over an unrelated provision that was included at the request of the White House. The language threatened to derail the spending resolution despite it being on a smooth path to passage just earlier this week.
The disagreement stemmed from language that would delay a federal ban targeting intoxicating hemp products, which President Donald Trump signed into law last year. The ban was set to take effect in November, but the Trump administration officials requested that date be pushed back to Dec. 11, the same day that government funding would run out.
That request prompted rare pushback from Sen. Ted Budd of North Carolina, who demanded the delay be removed from the legislation.
Budd’s opposition, which attracted the support of several Republican senators, threw GOP leaders into a bind. Without their support to expedite passage, the Senate would have needed a delay to their August recess.
As part of a time agreement to pass the continuing resolution before the recess period, GOP leaders agreed to vote on an amendment to strip the provision from the bill. That amendment was defeated after 61 senators voted to table the proposal.
The spending resolution now must be approved by the House, which previously passed its own version, before it can be signed by Trump.
House will need to vote on proposal
The proposal slightly differs from the House iteration as it includes additional funding provisions specifically requested from the Trump administration but adds to the final price tag. The resolution also has bipartisan support while the House version passed with only Republican votes.
The Senate version contains multiple anomaly requests, referring to specific programs the Trump administration wants to have additional spending for during the two-month extension period. Those include funding for food assistance, disaster relief, assistance for the FBI to prepare for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, grants for rental and homelessness assistance, and more.
Democrats were able to include guardrail language preventing the Trump administration from transferring money to Border Patrol beyond what was already approved in Republicans’ budget resolution earlier this year. That provision was not included in the House version despite Democratic demands.
Democrats also secured language issuing a freeze on the Office of Management and Budget’s proposed rule that would require federal grants to be approved by senior political appointees. Democrats rejected that proposal earlier this summer, raising concerns it would lead to the administration terminating grants for blue states that the White House disagrees with.
The resolution only freezes the OMB rule through the Dec. 11 timeline. However, it was an agreement that garnered bipartisan support.
The extension also includes language to avoid a lapse in funding for highway, rail and transit systems ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline. Proposals for a full reauthorization have since been stalled in the House and Senate.
Still, there were some provisions Democrats wanted in the CR that were rejected, including a provision to prevent the OMB from issuing pocket rescissions, a rarely used and legally questionable procedure that allows the president to cancel government funding without congressional approval.
The Trump administration utilized that tool last summer when it canceled nearly $5 billion in foreign aid, prompting pushback from Democrats.
The House is not scheduled to return until Aug. 31, meaning the proposal likely won’t be passed until September.