Speaker Johnson returns with trimmed-down government funding patch, eyes vote early this week

Congressional leaders announced a bipartisan agreement Sunday on a short-term spending bill that is expected to be approved and sent to the White House this week to head off a possible partial government shutdown when the new budget year begins Oct. 1.

The House is set to vote early this week on a three-month continuing resolution that will fund the government at the current fiscal year’s spending levels until Dec. 20. The bill does not include the controversial Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act that doomed its predecessor, and trims some extra spending that the previous version included, too.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, wrote in a letter to Republicans that he was pushing the latest effort to prevent the Senate from jamming the House with a stopgap that could be “loaded with billions in new spending and unrelated provisions.”

“While this is not the solution any of us prefer, it is the most prudent path forward under the present circumstances,” he wrote. “As history has taught and current polling affirms, shutting the government down less than 40 days from a fateful election would be an act of political malpractice.”