House passes bill

Shutdown averted as House passes stopgap bill 

By Lauren French and Seung Min Kim

The House easily cleared a stopgap spending bill on Wednesday evening after the measure zipped through the Senate earlier in the day, as lawmakers avoided a government shutdown just hours before the fiscal year ends at midnight.

The Senate showdown over government funding ended with a whimper, as conservatives couldn’t muster enough votes last week to advance a bill that also would have defunded Planned Parenthood. The Senate passed the short-term funding bill – without the Planned Parenthood language – on Wednesday morning by a 78-20 vote.

The House followed suit with a 277-151 vote to send the bill to President Barack Obama's desk, where he's expected to sign it into law.

Both of the votes proved to be an anticlimactic end to weeks of maneuvering over Planned Parenthood and the budget.

But Wednesday's measure just sets up another showdown threat – with even higher stakes – in December.

Conservatives in both chambers wanted to strip Planned Parenthood of its federal funding after a series of leaked videos showed officials with the organizations allegedly discussing fetal tissues sales. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who’s made defunding Planned Parenthood a rallying cry in his presidential campaign, couldn’t gather enough support from fellow Republicans to push the defunding rider through.

And in the House, conservatives were unable to convince Republican leadership to put forward a continuing resolution that included amendments to strip Planned Parenthood of its funding.

Instead, the government will be funded through December 11 through a so-called “clean” piece of legislation.

But Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters on Tuesday that he is worried that fights over spending caps, Planned Parenthood and overall government funding could lead to a shutdown in December.

“We need to agree on a number that abandons sequestration which nobody really believes will work,” Hoyer said. “We need to come to a budget agreement and I’ve been urging the majority leader to do that for the last few months and I’m hopeful that within the next 30 days we will accomplish that objective.”

Preliminary negotiations over a longer-term budget deal have already begun, but, so far, little headway has been made.

Democrats are demanding increases in domestic spending to match any boost for the Pentagon that GOP lawmakers have been calling for.

But raising existing spending caps will enrage conservative Republicans who will once again look to defund Planned Parenthood.