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Four lawmakers bucked their party in Friday’s votes on a Republican stopgap bill to fund the government, which passed the House but was blocked by Democrats in the Senate.
House Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) were the only GOP no votes in the House, while Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) was the sole Democrat who supported the bill.
In the upper chamber, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.) was the only senator who crossed party lines, voting in support of the continuing resolution (CR).
Republican Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) withheld their votes on the House bill, which would have held funding levels steady until Nov. 21 while boosting security funds for lawmakers and restoring $1 billion in funding for D.C.
Both Massie and Spartz had said earlier in the week they were opposed to the measure, which ultimately passed the House in a 217-212 vote.
“I am a ‘no’ unless it cuts spending, which I do not anticipate,” Massie said on Monday, as reported by Politico.
Spartz said she was against the timing of the CR, predicting it would pressure lawmakers to pass a massive spending bill before the holidays.
“Thanksgiving CR – NO. I am willing to vote for a CR of any duration—short or long—the least damage to the Republic, but I cannot support one that ends funding right before a major holiday to jam us with an Omnibus,” she wrote on X. “I’ve seen this playbook too many times.”
Fetterman and Golden, who are consistently the most moderate Democrats in their respective chambers, said they were prioritizing avoiding a shutdown over their problems with the bill.
Golden said a stopgap would “keep the lights on” and “give us more time to set policies and funding levels for the future,” in a Friday statement.
Fetterman shared similar reasoning, adding that he was “deeply dissappointed” that a Democratic version of the CR, which would have extended ObamaCare tax credits and reversed Medicaid cuts in the “big, beautiful bill,” did not pass.
“My subsequent vote of AYE on the GOP C.R. affirms that, despite their refusal to restore health care, I am unwilling to vote to shut down our government and unleash massive, national chaos,” Fetterman wrote on X.
Murkowski sided with Democrats on Friday, arguing Medicaid cuts need to be reversed, while Paul critiqued an extension of the current fiscal levels.
The measure was defeated 44-48 in the Senate, as Democrats bet that their health care fight will allow them to avoid blame for a potential shutdown.
Congress has 11 days to fund the government before a shutdown commences.
After the votes on Friday, President Trump predicted the government would shut down “for a period of time” amid the impasse in Congress.
“We’ll continue to talk to the Democrats, but I think you could very well end up with a closed country for a period of time,” Trump said. “And we’ll take care of the military. We’ll take care of Social Security. We’ll take care of the things we have to take care of.
“A lot of the things Democrats fight for … will not be able to be paid,” Trump added. “So we’ll watch and see how we do with that.”
