WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Jared Golden was the lone Democrat to join House Republicans in voting in favor of legislation Tuesday to fund federal agencies through September, although there are still questions about the bill in the Senate.
Republicans needed overwhelming support from their members to pass the funding measure, and they got it in the 217-213 House vote. All Democrats except Golden, who represents Maine’s 2nd District that has backed Trump in presidential elections, opposed the bill, while U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky was the only Republican to oppose it.
In the Senate, they’ll need support from at least eight Democrats to get the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk. It’s one of the biggest legislative tests so far of the Republican president’s second term, prompting Vice President JD Vance to visit Capitol Hill on Tuesday morning to rally support.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, moved ahead on the bill, essentially daring Democrats to oppose it and risk a shutdown that would begin Saturday if lawmakers failed to act on the continuing resolution. In a statement, Golden emphasized the bill was not perfect to him but that it was far better than a shutdown.
“Even a brief shutdown would introduce even more chaos and uncertainty at a time when our country can ill-afford it,” he said. “Funding the government is our most basic obligation as members of Congress.”
Lawmakers said the bill would trim $13 billion in non-defense spending from the levels in the 2024 budget year and increase defense spending by $6 billion, which are rather flat changes for both categories when compared with an overall topline of nearly $1.7 trillion in discretionary spending. The bill does not cover the majority of government spending, including Social Security and Medicare. Funding for those two programs is on autopilot.
Democrats are mostly worried about the discretion the bill gives the Trump administration on spending decisions. They are already alarmed by the administration’s efforts to make major cuts through the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, run by billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk. And they say the spending bill would fuel the effort.
Spending bills typically come with specific funding directives for key programs, but hundreds of those directives fall away under the legislation. So the administration will have more leeway to reshape priorities.
For example, a Democratic memo said the bill would allow the administration to steer money away from combating fentanyl and instead use it on mass deportation initiatives.
Rep. Tom Cole, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, acknowledged the continuing resolution was not the outcome he sought but said it was time to end the cycle of short-term funding extensions. This will be the third in recent months. He blamed Democrats for trying to rein in Trump’s authority on spending.
Normally, when it comes to keeping the government fully open for business, Republicans have had to work with Democrats to craft a bipartisan measure that both sides can support. That’s because Republicans almost always lack the votes to pass spending bills on their own.
Massie was still a holdout, though. He was the only Republican to vote no on the procedural vote and then oppose the bill. Trump went after Massie on social media, saying he should be primaried.
House Democratic leaders came out strongly against the legislation. Less clear was how strongly they would push members in competitive battleground districts to follow their lead.
Democratic leaders in the Senate emphasized patience at this stage and were waiting to see if Republicans can muscle the bill through the House before taking a stand.
“We’re going to see what the House does first,” said top Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York.
Democrats also introduced an alternative bill Monday night funding the government through April 11. The bill could serve as a Plan B if the GOP-led effort falters.
Story by Kevin Freking. Associated Press writers Leah Askarinam, Gary Fields and Lisa Mascaro and BDN writer Billy Kobin contributed to this report.
