Congress funds government until December, averting pre-election shutdown

The House on Tuesday voted to send a short-term extension of government funding to President Trump’s desk, avoiding a politically risky shutdown on the eve of the midterm elections. 

The continuing resolution (CR), which funds the government through Dec. 11, passed the House on a 370-48 vote, with 19 Republicans and 29 Democrats voting in opposition. The Senate advanced the measure by a landslide last month.

The CR now pushes the spending battle to before the holidays, when the outcome of the midterms will help determine how much leverage each party holds to set the spending agenda.

It’s rare for Congress to pass a CR this early in the year, amost a month before funding expires on Sept. 30 — even as political polarization has made finding bipartisan consensus on funding increasingly difficult and CRs necessary to keep the government open.

But the early timeline and the broad bipartisan support the CR received are clear signals that both parties were anxious to avoid a fall funding fight with the congressional majority hanging in the balance. Congress has contended with two record-breaking shutdowns in the past year alone.

Why this CR is even more rare: the Senate version was adopted with a margin of 90-6, and the several of the Democratic senators voting “no” did so as a signal because they knew the bill would succeed without them. 

Still, the funding stopgap didn’t get universal support in the House, and could cause problems for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).

Some hardline Republicans voted against the CR — and vowed to vote against a rule for four unrelated bills — because of........

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