Trump signs funding bill to avoid shutdown

President Trump signed the Republican-crafted spending bill to avert a government shutdown, the White House said on Saturday.

The Republican-crafted bill will fund the government through Sept. 30 and caps off the first funding fight of Trump’s second term. The saga has also led to an internal war among Democrats on Capitol Hill.

The legislation, that Trump had previously endorsed, boosts defense funding by $6 billion and imposes $13 billion in cuts to nondefense funding.

The deadline to avert a government shutdown was 11:59 p.m. Friday and the White House didn’t announce that Trump’s signature was on it until midday on Saturday. Trump is spending the weekend in Palm Beach and went out to golf at Mar-a-Lago around 8:30 a.m.

The final vote to pass the bill in the Senate was 54-46, with two Democrats joining 52 Republicans to pass the bill. But the key vote came earlier, when the Senate voted 62-38 to advance the legislation.

A 60-vote majority was needed to clear that hurdle, and 10 Democrats joined all but one Republican, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), to get over that threshold.

The bill was able to advance after Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) announced on Thursday that he would vote for it, infuriating House Democrats who had urged their counterparts in the upper chamber to block it.

Trump multiple times on Friday praised Schumer for supporting the bill, congratulating him for doing the “right thing” and later telling reporters, “I appreciate Sen. Schumer and I think he did the right thing. Really, I’m very impressed by that.”

The Democratic divisions caused by the vote have shattered the message of unity they were hoping to convey coming out of the House's annual strategy retreat this week, eroding confidence within the party that Schumer will hold the line to block the GOP agenda in the legislative fights to come.

Schumer’s move was seen as providing crucial political cover for Democratic Senate centrists, after they were in a tense internal debate over whether to vote for the bill and keep the government open. Meanwhile, a dozen House Democrats in tough districts voted against the measure Tuesday.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D), who voted against the bill, declined to say he has confidence in Schumer’s ability to lead the party heading into the coming fights against Trump's ambitious agenda.

Topics

10 Democrats help Republicans advance GOP funding bill to avoid shutdown

A group of 10 Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), on Friday voted to advance a Republican-crafted bill to fund the government through Sept. 30, taking a crucial step ...
The Hill - 1d
House votes to avoid government shutdown by passing temporary spending bill

The House of Representatives has passed a short-term funding bill to avert a government shutdown. The stopgap bill funds the government until Sept. 30. The measure increases defense spending by $6 ...
CBS News - 3d
Senate passes GOP funding bill to avert a government shutdown

The Senate passed a six-month funding bill on Friday to avert a government shutdown hours ahead of the midnight deadline. It now goes to the White House where President Donald Trump is expected to ...
NBC News - 10h
Senate passes short-term funding bill, averting a government shutdown

The Senate has passed a short-term funding bill in a 54-46 vote, avoiding a government shutdown. The legislation already passed in the House and now heads to President Trump's desk. CBS News ...
CBS News - 22h
House Republicans pass bill to avert government shutdown

The House on Tuesday passed a funding bill to avert an end-of-the-week government shutdown, teeing up the measure for consideration in the Senate. The chamber cleared the continuing resolution (CR) ...
The Hill - 4d
Trump Signs Spending Bill to Fund Government

The bill was passed just hours before a midnight deadline to avoid a lapse in funding, which would have shut down the government.
The New York Times - 4h
House narrowly passes six-month funding bill as shutdown deadline nears

Speaker Mike Johnson and House Republicans voiced confidence that they can push through a stopgap funding bill and avert a government shutdown at the end of this week.
NBC News - 4d
Senate votes to avoid government shutdown

The Senate voted mostly along party lines Friday afternoon to pass the House Republican-drafted bill to fund government through September, avoiding a government shutdown only hours before funding ...
The Hill - 1d
Trump: Government shutdown would be 'purely on the Democrats'

President Trump said Democrats would be "purely to blame" for a government shutdown after House Republicans passed a funding bill that is uncertain to pass in the Senate.
NBC News - 2d