House GOP stunner: Spending patch passes with mostly Dem votes

In a shocking turn, the House on Saturday took an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote to avert a shutdown at midnight on Sunday — with the majority of Democrats bailing out the GOP.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy passed the 45-day stopgap funding patch, 335-91, with help from more than 200 Democrats and 90 Republicans voting no. It’s an unexpected move that is certain to accelerate a far-right rebellion aimed at taking his gavel. The bill now goes to the Senate, where it is likely to pass just before the shutdown deadline.

McCarthy’s abrupt shift in strategy came after weeks of unwillingness to take any route that pits him against a handful of conservative hardliners who have refused to allow any bipartisan efforts to stave off a shutdown.

“There was an outcry from rank-and-file that want a [continuing resolution]. We’re tired of fucking around with these whack jobs. They voted against it yesterday so let’s just put up a clean CR,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), among those who had repeatedly pushed for the speaker to ignore his right flank.

The vote capped a frenetic day in the House, where almost no lawmakers headed to the Capitol on Saturday morning had any hope for bipartisan dealmaking.

But McCarthy shocked his party — and most on the Hill — by deciding to put a “clean” bill on the floor that could be enough to doom his speakership. The short-term funding patch that passed includes none of the GOP’s spending cuts or border policies. The only addition: $16 billion for disaster aid sought by the White House.

His move sent Democrats scrambling on Saturday to scrub the bill for unsavory add-ins while spending multiple hours on delay tactics. Ultimately, most Democrats backed the bill, though House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) did not formally whip his members either way.

Rep. Greg Meeks (D-N.Y.) said he had no clue there would be a path avoiding a shutdown when he arrived in the building that morning.

“I had no idea because they’re clearly dysfunctional and unpredictable,” Meeks said. “I think finally, it’s what we wanted — to not have a shutdown.”

Many Republicans started off Saturday unsure whether they would get the Democratic support they needed for any stopgap bill. As the day went on, though, they saw a way out of what seemed to all of Washington like an inevitable shutdown.

“It is our obligation to anticipate and do as much as we can to mitigate” a government closure, said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who had long called for a clean bill. “This is the art of the possible.”

To actually avert a shutdown, though, the Senate still needs to act. Such a move would require unanimous consent from all 100 senators, but Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he thought the GOP would allow it.

“If the House passes a clean CR and it doesn’t have all that new Ukraine money in it? I will give my consent to let them speed up the process and have a vote on it this afternoon. I think our caucus leans in that direction,” Paul said. “I think it comes over here and we get consent to pass it over here and maybe done this afternoon.”

Burgess Everett and Jordain Carney contributed.

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