{"id":13376,"date":"2025-09-17T18:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T18:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/house-eyes-friday-vote-on-stopgap-as-partisan-tensions-flare\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T18:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T18:02:08","slug":"house-eyes-friday-vote-on-stopgap-as-partisan-tensions-flare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/house-eyes-friday-vote-on-stopgap-as-partisan-tensions-flare\/","title":{"rendered":"House eyes Friday vote on stopgap as partisan tensions flare"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Republican leaders vowed Wednesday to barrel forward with a stopgap funding bill<\/a> in the coming days as Democrats threatened to oppose it in favor of their own alternative \u2014 raising the chances for an Oct. 1 government shutdown.<\/p>\n

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise<\/a> told reporters Wednesday morning that a vote on the GOP-written bill unveiled Tuesday is expected \u201clikely Friday\u201d amid Democratic objections about a lack of bipartisan negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to do our job, and that’s all we can do, is do our job,\u201d he said. \u201cIf Democrats want to shut the government down and continue to hold America hostage because they don’t like the results of the election, the American people are fed up with that kind of childish politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

While House GOP leaders have pushed their members for earlier action, they believe Friday morning is the likeliest option for the vote. Hard-liners and others are pushing leaders to stick to the chamber’s 72-hour-review rule.<\/p>\n

GOP leaders are also still working to win the votes of several undecided Republicans, including Rep. Warren Davidson<\/a> (R-Ohio), but are confident they are on track to pass the measure by the end of the week. “Like any big vote, they’re always tight,\u201d Scalise said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Rep. Andy Harris<\/a> (R-Md.), chair of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, said in a brief interview he was expecting a \u201cFriday morning\u201d vote, saying that was \u201cclose enough\u201d to fulfilling the 72-hour rule. GOP leaders have privately acknowledged a Thursday vote could cost them votes among hard-liners, and they can\u2019t afford to lose many Republicans with Rep. Thomas Massie<\/a> (R-Ky.) already a hard “no.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI suspect leadership knows it\u2019s easier to get guys to a yes when we\u2019re following the rules than not,\u201d said another Republican involved in the conversations granted anonymity to speak candidly.<\/p>\n

Senate Republicans, who want to act quickly on the House bill, are closely watching the House action as they plan their own schedule.<\/p>\n

If the House votes Friday, the earliest the Senate would be able to vote is Monday. While voting on Thursday could theoretically move up that schedule a day, a number of Republican senators want to attend activist Charlie Kirk’s funeral Sunday, making a vote that day unlikely.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss chamber scheduling, senators are not eager to return Monday only to leave again for an already scheduled recess for Rosh Hashanah. Instead, senators would likely return next Thursday, after the Jewish holiday, the people said.<\/p>\n

The scheduling conflicts come as the Sept. 30 funding expiration looms and as Senate Democrats threaten to use the chamber\u2019s filibuster rule to block the GOP stopgap.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Senate, it takes 60 votes,\u201d Minority Leader Chuck Schumer<\/a> said Wednesday. \u201cSo that means Republicans will need to work with us. If they can\u2019t even bother to have a conversation with Democrats, then it\u2019s Republicans who the American people will know are causing a shutdown in two weeks.”<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune<\/a> reiterated Wednesday that Republicans see nothing to negotiate on the \u201cclean\u201d stopgap, which would extend current funding through Nov. 21. \u201cThese guys are trying to take a hostage here,” he said.<\/p>\n

Speaker Mike Johnson<\/a>, asked about the prospect of Senate Democrats blocking the House stopgap, said in a brief interview Tuesday that he hoped that wouldn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere would be no reason to, because it’s clean and short term.\u201d Asked if he would work on a backup plan in that case, he replied, \u201cWe\u2019re going to see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

But House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole<\/a> signaled some support Wednesday for Republicans working on a Plan B if Senate Democrats do block the GOP-led stopgap as they\u2019re threatening.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly would,\u201d Cole said in a brief interview, but he acknowledged it was \u201ca leadership decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cole, asked if the talks could be salvaged at that point to stave off a shutdown, replied, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments came as tensions between normally cordial appropriators appear to be reaching a breaking point. Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Patty Murray<\/a> (D-Wash.) on Tuesday accused Cole of having \u201cpulled out\u201d of bipartisan talks and \u201cproduced a one-sided CR.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere are the Republican leaders?\u201d Murray said. \u201cIf Republicans can\u2019t even sit down with [Democratic leaders] to simply have a conversation, then they cannot govern.”<\/p>\n

Cole retorted Wednesday that Democrats were threatening to oppose a stopgap funding bill \u201cthey asked for\u201d and are now planning to unveil their own alternative that adds on health care provisions and other measures GOP leaders are opposing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gave them the time frame and a clean bill, now they\u2019re wanting to put other things in,\u201d he said, adding that health care and other issues Democrats want to tackle \u201cought to be dealt with in separate discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republican leaders vowed Wednesday to barrel forward with a stopgap funding bill in the coming days as Democrats threatened to oppose it in favor of their own alternative \u2014 raising the chances for an Oct. 1 government shutdown. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters Wednesday morning that a vote on the GOP-written bill unveiled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}