Spending deal averts potential federal shutdown, funds government through December

Congressional leaders announced an agreement Sunday on a short-term spending bill that would fund federal agencies for about three months, averting a possible partial government shutdown when the new budget year begins Oct. 1 and postponing final decisions until after the November election.

The stopgap spending bills typically fund agencies at current levels, but an additional $231 million was included to bolster the Secret Service after two assassination attempts on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, and additional money was added to help with the presidential transition, among other things.

Lawmakers have struggled to get to this point as the current budget year draws to a close at the end of the month. At the urging of more conservative members of his conference, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had tied the temporary funding to a mandate that would have required states to require proof of citizenship when people register to vote.

But Johnson abandoned that approach to reaching a deal, even as Trump insisted there should be no stopgap measure without a vote requirement. Shortly afterward, bipartisan negotiations began, with leaders agreeing to extend funding through mid-December. That gives the current Congress the ability to craft a full-year spending bill after the Nov. 5 election, rather than shifting that responsibility to the next Congress and president.

In a letter to his Republican colleagues, Johnson said the budget measure would be “very limited, very narrow” and would include “only those extensions that are absolutely necessary.”

“While this is not the solution any of us prefer, it is the most prudent path forward under the current circumstances,” Johnson wrote. “As history has taught and current polls confirm, shutting down the government less than 40 days before a fateful election would be an act of political malpractice.”

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats would consider the bill in its entirety before this week’s vote, but with the deal, “Congress is now on a bipartisan path to avoid a government shutdown that would hurt everyday Americans.”

Rep. Tom Cole, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said Friday that talks were going well.

“So far, nothing has come up that we can’t resolve,” said Cole, R-Okla. “Most people don’t want a government shutdown and they don’t want it to interfere with the election. So nobody’s saying, ‘I have to do this or we’re leaving.’ That’s just not the case.”

Johnson’s earlier effort had no chance in the Democratic-controlled Senate and was rejected by the White House, but it gave the House speaker a chance to show Trump and conservatives within his conference that he fought for their request.

The end result — government funding effectively on autopilot — was what many had predicted. With elections just weeks away, few lawmakers in either party had an appetite for the brinkmanship that often leads to a shutdown.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the same deal could have been reached two weeks ago, but “President Johnson chose to go down the MAGA path and wasted precious time.” “As I have said throughout this process, there is only one way to get things done, with bipartisan and bicameral support,” Schumer said.

A bipartisan majority is now expected to push the short-term measure across the finish line this week. Agreement on the short-term measure doesn’t mean reaching a final spending bill will be easy in December. Election results could also influence political calculations if one party does better than the other, potentially pushing the fight into early next year.

Funding for the Secret Service also comes with a condition, with lawmakers making it contingent on the Department of Homeland Security providing certain information to a House task force and a Senate committee investigating assassination attempts on Trump.

In a recent letter, the Secret Service told lawmakers that a funding shortfall was not the reason for lapses in security for Trump when a gunman climbed onto an unsecured roof on July 13 at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and opened fire. But acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. said this week that the agency had “immediate needs” and is talking to Congress.

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