The end of the current government shutdown is in sight on its fourth day after Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., managed to corral nearly all of his House GOP lawmakers to advance the legislation.
The Senate’s federal funding deal survived an important hurdle late Tuesday morning, clearing a House-wide ‘rule vote’ to allow for lawmakers to debate the measure and set up a vote on final passage by early afternoon.
It comes after a pair of House conservatives announced they would be backing off their threats to sink the legislation during the rule vote if the legislation was not paired with an unrelated election integrity bill called the SAVE America Act.
A rule vote is a House-wide test vote of sorts for most bills before they are considered for final passage. They normally fall along partisan lines even if the underlying bill has bipartisan support.
The same is true in this case, where at least several House Democrats are expected to support the funding bill during final passage — despite House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., strongly coming out against it.
But for Johnson, that meant navigating a razor-thin one-seat majority to get nearly all House Republicans to vote in lockstep to advance the legislation.
Democrats had initially walked away from a bipartisan House deal to finish funding the federal government through the end of fiscal year (FY) 2026 on Sept. 30, rebelling against a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over President Donald Trump’s handling of unrest in Minneapolis.
It left roughly 78% of the government’s yearly funding hanging in the balance. The DHS bill was lumped into a wider package authorizing budgets for the departments of War, Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Education.
A new deal hashed out between Senate Democrats and the White House would fully fund those remaining areas while only extending current funding levels for DHS through Feb. 13, in order to give Democrats and Republicans time to hash out a longer-term bipartisan plan.
And despite most House Republicans coming on board — some more reluctant than others over the prospect of dealing with Democrats — Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., and Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., warned they would not support the bill during the rule vote without the SAVE America Act attached.
The SAVE America Act would require voter ID at the polls and create a new proof of citizenship mandate in the voter registration process.
But that would require it to be sent back to the Senate for additional approval, where Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said it was dead on arrival.
However, Luna told reporters on Monday night that she and Burchett both changed their minds after getting assurances from the White House that Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., would force a vote on the SAVE America Act.
‘As of right now, with the current agreement that we have, as well as discussions, we will both be a yes on the rule,’ Luna said. ‘There is something called a standing filibuster that would effectively allow Senator Thune to put voter ID on the floor of the Senate. We are hearing that that is going well, and he is considering that…so we are very happy about that.’
House lawmakers will now debate the underlying bill, which will see a final vote around 1 p.m. ET.