House passes a bill to avoid a partial government shutdown, but prospects in the Senate look dim

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Friday passed a short-term spending bill to extend government funding for seven weeks and avoid a partial government shutdown on Oct. 1, but prospects looked dimmer in the Senate, where the two parties show no signs of budging on the matter.

The bill would generally continue existing funding levels through Nov. 21. Democratic leaders are adamantly opposed and are threatening a government shutdown if Republicans don't let them have a say on the measure, as some Democratic support will be needed to get a bill to President Donald Trump's desk for his signature.

The vote was 217-212. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine was the lone Democratic member to support the bill.

House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana had few votes to spare as he sought to persuade fellow Republicans to vote for the funding patch, something many in his conference have routinely opposed in past budget fights. But this time, GOP members see a chance to portray the Democrats as responsible for a shutdown.

"The ball is in Chuck Schumer’s court. I hope he does the right thing. I hope he does not choose to shut the government down and inflict pain on the American people,” Johnson said after the vote.

In a sign the vote could be close, Trump weighed in, urging House Republicans to pass the bill and put the burden on Democrats to oppose it. GOP leaders often need Trump’s help to win over holdouts on legislation.

“Every House Republican should UNIFY, and VOTE YES!” Trump said on his social media site.

Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said that in opposing the continuing resolution, Democrats were working to protect the health care of the American people. He said that with Republicans controlling the White House and both branches of Congress, “Republicans will own a government shutdown. Period. Full stop."

The House vote now sends the bill to the Senate where Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said the Senate will vote on the measure along with a dueling Democratic proposal. But neither is expected to win the 60 votes necessary to advance.

Senators could then potentially leave town until Sept. 29 — one day before the shutdown deadline. The Senate has a scheduled recess next week because of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.

The Democratic proposal would extend enhanced health insurance subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, plus reverse Medicaid cuts that were included in Republicans’ big tax breaks and spending cuts bill enacted earlier this year.

“The American people will look at what Republicans are doing, look at what Democrats are doing, and it will be clear that public sentiment will be on our side,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who has repeatedly threatened a shutdown if health care isn't addressed.

Democrats on both sides of the Capitol are watching Schumer closely after his last-minute decision in March to vote with Republicans to keep the government open. Schumer argued then that a shutdown would be damaging and would give Trump and his White House freedom to make more government cuts. Many on the left revolted, with some advocates calling for his resignation.

The vote in the spring also caused a temporary schism with Jeffries, who opposed that particular GOP spending bill and said he would not be “complicit” with Schumer’s vote.

The two Democratic leaders now say they are united, and Schumer says things have changed since March. The public is more wary of Trump and Republicans, Schumer says, after the passage of Medicaid cuts.

Most Democrats appear to be backing Schumer's demand that there be negotiations on the bill — and support his threats of a shutdown, even as it is unclear how they would get out of it.

“Look, the president said really boldly, don’t even talk to Democrats. Unless he’s forgotten that you need a supermajority to pass a budget in the Senate, that’s obviously his signal he wants a shutdown,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.

While the Democratic measure to fund the government has no chance of passage Friday, it does give Democrats a way to show voters their focus on cutting health care costs.

“There are some thing we have to address. The health insurance, ACA, is going to hammer millions of people in the country, including in red states,” said Sen. Angus King, I-Maine. “To me, that can’t be put off.”

Republicans say the blame would be clearly on the other side if they can’t pass a bill — and are using Schumer's previous arguments against shutdowns.

Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said: “Senator Schumer himself said that passing a clean CR will avert a harmful and unnecessary shutdown. Now he wants to cause a harmful and unnecessary shutdown.”

Now that the House has passed the measure, Johnson said Republicans were discussing whether to stay back in their home districts through the rest of September, essentially forcing the Senate to approve the House-passed measure or risk a shutdown. He said lawmakers have a lot of work to do in their districts.

Asked whether he was open to negotiating with Schumer and Jeffries, he said that “if Chuck Schumer's negotiation is that he wants to add $1.4 trillion in new spending, the answer is no.”

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Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.