A surge of conservative Republican anger about the bipartisan package threatened to derail the measure as lawmakers in both chambers worked to avoid a funding lapse.
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“Democracy is messy,” Speaker Mike Johnson said on Thursday.
Congressional leaders toiled on Friday to put down a conservative revolt and pass a bipartisan $1.2 trillion spending bill needed to fund the government through the fall, racing to push the measure through before a midnight deadline to avert a partial shutdown.
House Republican leaders planned a midmorning vote on the legislation, which would fund the Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon, the State Department and health agencies. But they were still working to tamp down defections in their ranks among Republicans infuriated with a deal that critics argued did not cut spending deeply enough or contain sufficient conservative policy mandates, and was being rushed through Congress with uncommon speed.
Speaker Mike Johnson and his deputies are relying on the same coalition of lawmakers that has passed every spending bill so far over the past year — almost all Democrats and a slim majority of Republicans — to speed the bill through the House under a special procedure that requires a two-thirds supermajority, or 290 votes. But with hours to go before the vote, it was not clear whether Mr. Johnson could muster even half of his members to support the measure, potentially putting that threshold out of reach.
If the legislation, which lumps six spending bills into one package, were to fail in the House on Friday, it would send lawmakers back to the drawing board just hours ahead of when government spending was slated to lapse at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, virtually guaranteeing at least a partial shutdown.
Should it succeed in the House, it remains to be seen whether conservatives in the Senate will agree to allow the measure to quickly come to a vote in that chamber, where any one senator can drag out the consideration of legislation.
“Democracy is messy,” Mr. Johnson said on Thursday in an interview on CNBC. “It’s particularly messy right now, and in a moment like this, but we have to get the job done and there are some very substantial wins in here.”
Democrats and Republicans have both highlighted victories in the painstakingly negotiated legislation. Republicans cited as victories funding for 2,000 new Border Patrol agents, additional detention beds run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a provision cutting off aid to the main U.N. agency that provides assistance to Palestinians. Democrats secured funding increases for federal child care and education programs, cancer and Alzheimer’s research.
But the legislation has ignited a furor among ultraconservatives both on and off Capitol Hill who rallied their supporters to lobby lawmakers to vote against it.
“America is being gutted with open borders and 2 trillion dollar deficits — and there are blue AND red fingerprints on the knife,” Representative Chip Roy of Texas, an influential conservative who led opposition to the legislation, wrote on social media on Thursday night.
Catie Edmondson covers Congress for The Times. More about Catie Edmondson
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Source: nytimes.com
