(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) House Republicans, Senate Democrats and President Joe Biden rallied behind a last-minute stopgap bill led by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., averting a government shutdown just three hours away from the Saturday midnight deadline.
This unexpected turn of events marks a significant victory for McCarthy and hints at a rare moment of bipartisan cooperation on Capitol Hill.
✓ Passed by the House
✓ Passed by the SenateI just signed and sent this short-term stop-gap bill to the White House in order to fund our troops, deliver emergency relief, and keep government open while Congress gets back to work through regular order. pic.twitter.com/1pn4z43Xci
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) October 1, 2023
A separate measure proposed by McCarthy faced staunch opposition from some House Republicans, who delivered a third catastrophic blow to the House speaker’s own bill. However, the final Senate tally for the clean stopgap bill was 88 in favor and only nine in opposition for it.
This stopgap measure proceeded to Biden’s desk for final approval, who signed the bill a few minutes before the deadline. Biden celebrated the bill but criticized the delay in its passing in a Saturday Twitter post
“This is good news,” Biden claimed, before adding, “I want to be clear: we should never have been in this position in the first place.”
I just signed a law to keep the government open for 47 days. 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. pic.twitter.com/ffjwUIPWIt
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 1, 2023
Taking to Twitter to celebrate his victory, McCarthy stated, “I just signed and sent this short-term stop-gap bill to the White House in order to fund our troops, deliver emergency relief, and keep government open while Congress gets back to work through regular order.”
Initially, it was expected that McCarthy would have to settle with House Democrats to pass his first bill, which included a contentious $300 million in aid for Ukraine and border security funding. However, a turn of events saw Republicans and Democrats join forces to pass a new stopgap bill, effectively funding the government for approximately 45 days.
Despite this bipartisan feat, the passage of the bill was not without controversy. Rep. Jamal Bowman, D-N.Y., a member of the socialist “Squad,” attempted to thwart the proceedings and allegedly pulled a fire alarm.
BREAKING: Capitol police release photo of Jamaal Bowman pulling the fire alarm. pic.twitter.com/XpUoEu9lU4
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 30, 2023
The alarm caused chaos and prompted an emergency evacuation from the Cannon Office Building in Capitol Hill. Several House Republicans promptly blamed Bowman and called for his immediate arrest. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., pledged to introduce a resolution calling for his ousting from the House.
Despite this, McCarthy had hinted at the stopgap bill earlier on Saturday, according to Fox News. “The House is going to act so government will not shut down,” McCarthy told reporters. “We will put a clean funding stopgap on the floor to keep government open for 45 days for the House and Senate to get their work done.”
