A majority of House Republicans and Democrats joined forces Tuesday to clear a Senate-passed stopgap appropriations bill, ensuring the government will remain open through Dec. 11 and punting a potential shutdown fight until after the midterm elections.
The stopgap temporarily extends current spending levels and policies, with some adjustments for priority programs, such as those focused on national defense, wildfire prevention and food assistance. The White House has said President Trump will sign the bill.
Congress is far from an agreement on full-year fiscal 2027 appropriations bills, but the stopgap provides lawmakers with an additional 10 weeks of negotiating time.
“We bought the time that we need to get through the election cycle and hopefully the time that we need to get to serious bargaining on the other side of it,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, Oklahoma Republican.
The 370-48 vote on the stopgap, also called a continuing resolution, came four weeks before the Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government for the next fiscal year, frustrating some lawmakers in both parties who wanted to use that time.
“I will be voting yes on the CR even though doing CRs is a stupid way to run government,” said Rep. Ted Lieu of California, vice chair of the Democratic Caucus. “We have a whole ’nother month left, and Republicans who control the House, the Senate and the White House are waving the white flag of surrender and basically saying we don’t know how to govern.”
Conservatives opposed some provisions in the continuing resolution and wanted a chance to amend it. Republican leaders instead decided to proceed without changes and rely on Democratic votes, using a fast-track process known as the suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority vote for passage.
“They don’t want my vote. They wanted to get Democratic votes,” said Rep. Keith Self, Texas Republican. “I don’t think major funding bills should be under suspension, just as a matter of principle.”
Mr. Cole said that although the continuing resolution contains provisions that House Republicans disagree with, they decided not to pick a fight over the temporary bill to ease the start of bipartisan, bicameral negotiations over full-year appropriations bills.
“I wish we could get everybody to work faster and sooner … but there will be no government shutdown,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican.
Mr. Johnson said he hopes Democrats are finished playing political games after blocking government funding for roughly one-third of the current fiscal year.
Fiscal 2026 started with a record-breaking 43-day governmentwide shutdown in October as Senate Democrats filibustered a stopgap spending bill over an unrelated healthcare policy dispute.
Congress then passed 11 of the 12 annual appropriations bills, but Democrats filibustered the Department of Homeland Security funding measure in opposition to Mr. Trump’s immigration enforcement operations. The department was shut down for 76 days, and Republicans ultimately had to separately fund immigration enforcement agencies through the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process.
Republicans said the stopgap is designed to avoid a repeat of those crises.
“We want to get a longer-term deal, but at a minimum, let’s ensure that we can continue to see government properly funded and functioning, so we don’t have the chaos that Democrats gave us last year with lines at every single airport, with shutdowns where our troops’ pay was in question, where you had so much uncertainty that we don’t need,” said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Louisiana Republican.
House Republicans passed their own stopgap in July, but the Senate amended the bill with changes intended to secure the bipartisan support needed to overcome a filibuster.
The Senate removed a provision in the House bill that would have allowed the Homeland Security Department to transfer additional funding to the U.S. Border Patrol, a move that had angered Democrats since the agency already has advanced funding from the reconciliation measure.
The bipartisan agreement also includes a provision temporarily blocking the White House Office of Management and Budget from finalizing a rule that would grant political appointees greater authority over how grant funds are spent.
“This is an important first step, but more must be done to permanently block this policy before it is allowed to take effect,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, adding that the proposed OMB rule would take away the power of the purse from Congress and give it to Mr. Trump.
Conservatives’ opposition to the continuing resolution stemmed in part from its blocking OMB from finalizing the grantmaking rule before Dec. 11. Some also opposed a provision that delays implementation of a new law banning intoxicating hemp products for a month.
“The House and Senate disagree on the continuing resolution,” said House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, Maryland Republican. “We should go to conference or we should have a vote on the Senate’s ridiculous provisions concerning poisoning our children for a month with intoxicating hemp products and allowing George Soros-linked NGOs to get grants. It’s ridiculous.”
Conservatives were particularly upset because Republican leaders did not offer them an opportunity to amend the bill. They wanted votes to block funding from going to Planned Parenthood, sanctuary cities that do not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement and Flock cameras that can be used to surveil Americans.
“This was uni-party doing uni-party things,” said Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Republican. “They’re going to continue to fund the swamp.”
• George Caldwell contributed to this report.
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