The third time's the charm for Mike Johnson's efforts to get a CR bill through the House of Representatives and avoid a government shutdown at midnight tonight.
It's been quite the whirlwind in the House over the last few days. The initial 1500-page monstrosity of a bill that included farm aid, disaster relief, and a big fat pay raise for Congress was defeated. The second attempt was cut to 116 pages but included a suspension of the debt ceiling, which caused the bill to lose the support of many Republicans. The second bill also removed congressional pay raises and only received 2 votes from Democrats.
The third construal removed the suspension of the debt ceiling and returned a smaller congressional pay raise to the bill. Disaster relief and farm aid, which were initially going to be voted on in separate bills, were also included.
The third version of the CR passed easily.
U.S. House PASSES government funding bill, 366-34.
— CSPAN (@cspan) December 20, 2024
Goes now to the U.S. Senate. pic.twitter.com/ZPCtxBbfml
The Senate is expected to pass the bill and send it to President Biden's desk for a signature, which will prevent a government shutdown.
Here is a link to the bill's text if you're interested in reading it.
Bill text for latest CR, 118 pageshttps://t.co/7Mx81eGf1I
— Cami Mondeaux (@cami_mondeaux) December 20, 2024
It seems that every year, the House descends into chaos as it struggles to fund the government with a last-minute CR and Speaker Mike Johnson has been taking a lot of criticism for this year's debacle.
He should just call it quits right now. pic.twitter.com/EGiwFVlaRT
— Alghero Man 🇺🇸 🇮🇹 🇻🇪 (@AlgheroMan) December 20, 2024
LOL! I’m so proud of our inept @SpeakerJohnson!!!
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) December 20, 2024
He got unanimous Democrat support on his spending bill!
All 196 democrats voted yes.
Mike Johnson is a Democrat.
Has everyone seen enough yet? Mike Johnson has to go. He’s a weak feckless leader. https://t.co/5rbmAzSisx
— Catturd ™ (@catturd2) December 20, 2024
As he often does, Brit Hume made a very astute observation about the budgetary blame game.
Lost in the uproar over the CR in the House is this: the House actually did pass at least half of the regular appropriations bills this year. Guess how many the Senate passed: 0. That's a big part of why we've ended once again with a CR. Is anyone blaming Chuck Schumer?
— Brit Hume (@brithume) December 21, 2024
Why is Schumer above the fray? Bills that would avoid all the last-minute havoc pass in the House and are sent to the Senate to die.
It's not just appropriations bills. Democrats were beside themselves when funding for pediatric cancer research was removed from the original 1500-page CR, which the House had passed back in March. Schumer buried that bill, and it was never voted on in the Senate.
Turns out the cancer research funding that Democrats are all blaming on @elonmusk, was a stand alone bill that passed in the Republican controlled House but got held up in the Democrat controlled Senate.
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) December 20, 2024
Democrats k*lled a funding bill for child cancer research. pic.twitter.com/fGwVHoRErH
The same fate befell HR1, the House border security bill.
Shumer also blocked HR1…Border Security bill passed by the house in May 2023. Never brought it to the floor. Ignored border security till polls said it was a big issue. Then blamed GOP for everything. Still has HR1 on his desk.
— Steve Ohnesorge (@WBTVSteveO) December 21, 2024
The House passes bills, Schumer kills the bills and then blames Republicans.
Perhaps the GOP should do a better job of informing/reminding people of those facts, they would get more support.
— Mike (@Mike1006016) December 21, 2024
Republicans have the support they need. They just won an electoral trifecta. They do need to improve their messaging.
Schumer would not put them to a vote. Schumer is scum.
— TheRifleman (@TheRifleman11) December 21, 2024
They say if you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all. The best we can come up with for Schumer is that at least he won't be the majority leader in January.
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