House Passes Continuing Resolution to Fund Government Through Midterms, but There's a Catch

Speaker Mike Johnson said he has the votes to pass the rules on the spending bill to keep the government funded through the midterms. It also includes the SAVE America Act in the legislation, which could cause issues since enough Republicans in the Senate might block the bill (via Politico):

The House passed a government funding bill Tuesday night that would extend funding for all federal operations through the midterm elections — a move made months ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline to avoid a shutdown.
The 220-205 vote was largely along party lines, with Speaker Mike Johnson managing to keep his extremely narrow majority mostly together to advance legislation that would fund the government through Dec. 4.
Top House Republicans hope moving the funding measure so early in the process will put Democrats on defense in the impending government spending fight, before voters head to the polls this fall. Republicans plan to highlight Democrats’ votes against federal funding in the midterm campaigns.
The bill also does not include unrelated policy provisions, a key selling point for GOP leaders who argue there’s no reason Democrats should oppose a “clean” product. The measure does include traditional payments to the families of lawmakers who have died while serving in Congress, including late-Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and late-Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.), which is not politically controversial.
[…]
Speaker Mike Johnson has since smoothed over the dispute with those hard-liners, led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), over forcing the Senate to consider voter identification legislation that kept the House floor frozen for weeks. With Tuesday’s procedural vote, Republicans agreed to attach their overhaul, the SAVE America Act, to the defense bill when it passes. House Republicans have similarly attached the SAVE America Act to other major bills sent to the Senate this month.
The rule vote was held open as Johnson worked to sway some holdouts to advance the defense bill and several other measures. In the end, just one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, opposed advancing the bill after GOP leadership didn’t green-light his amendment to strip a provision that would bolster cooperation between the U.S. and Israel on military technology.

🚨That's huge news.

Thune saying he will hold reconciliation until they settle government funding. That would, theoretically, give him the ability to add a CR to reconciliation.

but also, will slow walk the reconciliation process. https://t.co/boHM9xqcUP
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) July 21, 2026

The next part is hashing out some 320 amendments to this bill. And speaking of the Senate, Majority Leader John Thune, of course, is going a different route, which could delay this funding measure and create chaos on the Hill, as we saw with the DHS funding fiasco. Once again, he’s trying to play dealmaker with Democrats. Good sir, these people oppose the House bill because it doesn’t block funds from going to Border Patrol. Guys, DHS is fully funded throughout the rest of the Trump presidency.

So, yes, a funding measure was passed. Mike Johnson proved again that he does his job and can pass things that didn’t seem possible—but the Senate under Thune is gumming up the works.

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