President Joe Biden signed into law a bill to fund the government through mid-November with just minutes to spare to avert a government shutdown.
The House and Senate on Saturday overwhelmingly approved the bill to fund federal agencies after a chaotic week on Capitol Hill in which reaching an accord seemed highly unlikely.
Now Congress must turn its attention to funding the government for a full year.
"I just signed a law to keep the government open for 47 days," Biden wrote on social media after signing the bill into law. "There’s plenty of time to pass Government funding bills for the next fiscal year, and I strongly urge Congress to get to work right away. The American people expect their government to work. Let’s make sure it does."
The bill passed the Senate in a 88-9 vote. Nine Republicans voted against the bill: Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Mike Braun, R-Ind., Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., Mike Lee, R-Utah, Roger Marshall, R-Kan., Rand Paul, R-Ky., Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and J.D. Vance, R-Ohio.
"Democrats and Republicans have come to an agreement and the government will remain open," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said ahead of the vote. "We will have avoided a shutdown. Bipartisanship, which has been the trademark of the Senate, has prevailed, and the American people can breathe a sigh of relief."
"Thank you, to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their excellent work," he later added. "The bipartisanship here in the Senate set the tone for today's result, and I hope it sets the tone for the future."
The measure earlier Saturday passed the House in an overwhelmingly bipartisan 335-91 vote. Ninety Republicans and one Democrat voted against the bill.
The bill, put forth by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Saturday after a rocky week of back-and-forth negotiations, will continue funding at current levels until Nov. 17 and includes $16 billion in FEMA disaster relief funding, but doesn't include $6 billion in aid for Ukraine, a key priority of the White House.
It also includes reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration and the extension of a federal flood insurance program.
A shutdown would have forced millions of federal employees – including members of the military, air traffic controllers, TSA screeners, Customs and Border Protection agents – to work without pay, furloughed other government workers, and disrupted programs that millions of Americans rely on, like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), which provides aid to 7 million women and hcildren.
In a statement, President Joe Biden celebrated the passage of the bill, but slammed House Republicans for attempting to renege on the deal he struck with McCarthy to raise the debt limit earlier this year – and called for lawmakers to take up Ukraine aid in a future bill.
"Tonight, bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate voted to keep the government open, preventing an unnecessary crisis that would have inflicted needless pain on millions of hardworking Americans," Biden said. "This bill ensures that active-duty troops will continue to get paid, travelers will be spared airport delays, millions of women and children will continue to have access to vital nutrition assistance, and so much more. This is good news for the American people."
"But I want to be clear: we should never have been in this position in the first place," he continued. "Just a few months ago, Speaker McCarthy and I reached a budget agreement to avoid precisely this type of manufactured crisis. For weeks, extreme House Republicans tried to walk away from that deal by demanding drastic cuts that would have been devastating for millions of Americans. They failed."
"While the Speaker and the overwhelming majority of Congress have been steadfast in their support for Ukraine, there is no new funding in this agreement to continue that support," the president added. "We cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted. I fully expect the Speaker will keep his commitment to the people of Ukraine and secure passage of the support needed to help Ukraine at this critical moment."
The bill needed the support of two-thirds of the House to pass, forcing McCarthy to rely on Democratic support for the bill – a move that could cost him his speakership. Far-right Republicans – many of them allies of former President Donald Trump, who has encouraged the GOP to "shut it down" if they don't win their priorities – have opposed any short-term funding measure and have threatened to introduce motions to remove McCarthy from his role if he cuts deals with Democrats.
"If somebody wants to remove me because I want to be the adult in the room, go ahead and try,” McCarthy said of threats to remove him from this post. “But I think this country is too important.”
The bill was supported by vastly more Democrats (202) than Republicans (121), a move that could put McCarthy at odds with the far-right flank of his conference.
Democrats declared a decisive victory on Saturday for getting Republicans to agree to extend funding at current levels rather than cutting spending.
"MAGA Republicans have surrendered," House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., wrote on social media. "All extreme right-wing policies have been removed from the House spending bill. The American people have won."
"We went from devastating cuts that would have impacted the health, the safety and the economic well-being of the American people in 24 hours to a spending agreement that meets the needs of the American people across the board, entirely consistent with what Democrats have said from the beginning is the only path forward: a bipartisan spending agreement that keeps government open, avoids a catastrophic government shutdown and meets the needs of the American people in every possible way," Jeffries told reporters on Saturday.
"Today, Democrats came to the rescue," said House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass. "Speaker McCarthy admitted defeat. He asked Democrats to put out the fire that he and his party started."
McCarthy said that he tried "every possible way of listening to every single person" in his conference, and admitted that he would have preferred the bill that he put forth Friday – which included border security provisions and steeper spending cuts – that more than 20 members of his conference voted against.
"If you have members in your conference that won't let you vote for appropriations bills, doesn't want an omnibus and won't vote for a stopgap measure, so the only option is to shut down and not pay our troops, I don't want to be a part of that team," he said. "I want to be a part of a conservative group that wants to get things done."
While some decried the lack of Ukraine aid – including Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley, the lone Democrat to vote against the bill, who has a large Ukrainian population in his district – the White House said it will push for a separate bill for that funding.
"We fully expect Speaker McCarthy, who has stated his support for funding to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s illegal and unjustified war of aggression, will bring a separate bill to the floor shortly," a White House official said.
In the Senate later Saturday, Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet temporarily held up a vote on the bill over his concerns about the bill's lack of Ukraine funding. But Senate leaders offered assurances that they would push forward with a separate bill on Ukraine aid.
"[Republican] Leader [Mitch] McConnell and I have agreed to continue fighting for more economic and security aid for Ukraine," Schumer said ahead of the vote. "We support Ukraine's efforts to defend its sovereignty against Putin's aggression."
"I’m confident the Senate will pass further urgent assistance for Ukraine later this year," McConnell said. "But let's be clear: the alternative to our action today was an entirely avoidable government shutdown that would not just pause our progress on these important priorities it would actually set them back."
The dramatic turn of events came one day after the Speaker McCarthy put forth a different short-term spending bill that was killed by 21 members of his own party.
McCarthy, speaking Friday before the vote, dared conservatives to vote against the bill, which would have enacted steep spending cuts to certain federal agencies, includes severe border security policies and would have been a nonstarter in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
"Every member will have to go on record on where they stand," McCarthy said at a news conference. "Are they willing to secure the border or do they side with President Biden on an open border And vote against a measure to keep government open?"
But the hardliners called his bluff, and the vote failed in a 232-197 vote, with 21 Republicans breaking ranks to oppose it, leaving House Republican leadership scrambling.
Far-right Republicans, who sank Friday's bill, want steep spending cuts and appear to be unconcerned about a shutdown in order to get there. Moderate Republicans, however, expressed frustration with the hardline Republicans who killed the bill, with at least one particularly reserving ire for Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, a perpetual thorn in McCarthy's side.
“There is only one person to blame for any potential government shutdown and that’s Matt Gaetz,” Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., told reporters after the vote. “He’s not a conservative Republican, he’s a charlatan.”
"As I have said repeatedly, there is only one person who is undermining the Republican conference for his own personal and political purposes," Lawler wrote on social media without mentioning Gaetz by name. "He’s pushing for a shutdown to remove the Speaker. It’s absolutely disgusting and should be universally condemned by Rs and Ds."
"20 other Republicans voted with me. And, BE BEST, Mike!" Gaetz fired back, seemingly referring to an initiative from former first lady Melania Trump aimed at curtailing cyberbullying.
Speaker McCarthy’s bill, which failed Friday, would have funded the government for 30 days, through Oct. 31, at levels far below current levels for certain federal departments — some as nearly 30% — while adding strict new border security measures, including beginning the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. It would also set up a bipartisan debt commission.
At a press briefing on Friday, Jean-Pierre was asked if Biden would step in and meet with McCarthy: “The people that McCarthy needs to talk to are his own caucus. That’s who he needs to have a conversation with, not the president,” she said.
The White House has emphasized Biden already personally met with McCarthy to work out the deal to avert a default on the nation’s debt in May – a deal that included agreements aimed at avoiding the situation Washington finds itself in now.
At Friday’s briefing, Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young – who the White House has routinely cited as the person who has been in touch with members of Congress about a possible shutdown when asked about Biden and McCarthy’s communication over the last few weeks – sought to stress how the House GOP is the only group going back on that deal.
“We’re doing everything we can to plead, beg, shame House Republicans: do the right thing, don’t have this happen,” she told reporters.