House Approves Mike Johnson’s Stopgap Funding Bill
Hello from Capitol Hill, where members are feeling a bit testy and everyone is itching to head home for Thanksgiving. First, they’ll have to fund the government.
The Congressional Record
- The House voted 336-95 on Tuesday to pass a stopgap funding bill introduced by House Speaker Mike Johnson, with 209 Democrats joining 127 Republicans to get it over the finish line despite opposition from conservatives in the chamber. The Senate appears ready to take up the spending bill and avert a government shutdown before Friday’s deadline, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer signaling openness to it on Monday.
- Rep. Gabe Amo, the first black member of Congress from Rhode Island, was sworn into the House on Monday. A Democrat and former Obama administration official, Amo replaces retired Rep. David Cicilline, who left the chamber over the summer to lead the philanthropic Rhode Island Foundation.
- Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Virginia Democrat, announced Monday she will not seek reelection to the House as she launches a bid to succeed Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin—who is term-limited—in 2025.
- Rep. Michael Burgess, a Texas Republican who has served in the House for two decades, announced Monday he will not seek reelection.
- Rep. Pat Fallon, a second-term Republican from Texas, also won’t seek reelection to the House. He’s instead running for a Texas state Senate seat he held before joining Congress. “At the end of the day, the decision came down to, If we lose Texas, we lose the nation,” Fallon explained. “It’s just terribly important to ensure that Texas has written a great success story and I want to keep moving that forward.”
- The Supreme Court announced Monday it will adopt its first official code of conduct. Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, praised the move as a step in the right direction, but argued its lack of an enforcement mechanism “falls short” of his expectations.
Congress May Avoid a Shutdown

House Speaker Mike Johnson’s stopgap government funding bill is poised to become law in time to avert a Friday shutdown deadline, clearing the House Tuesday night with a vote of 336-95.
Johnson’s measure won 209 Democrats and 127 Republicans. But 93 Republican lawmakers, upset the bill keeps spending at current levels rather than cutting it, voted against the legislation. Two Democrats opposed it. Johnson passed his first real test as speaker by pushing the bill through the chamber.
The stopgap bill, which extends funding for some programs until January and others until February to avoid a Christmastime crunch, otherwise looks a lot like the approach former speaker Kevin McCarthy took—relying on Democrats to get short-term spending over the finish line—before eight far-right Republicans joined Democrats in ousting him from the speakership in early October. But as we reported last week, conservatives are giving Johnson some more leeway because he’s new to the gig. That dynamic is holding true this week, even as some members railed against the stopgap bill for not making cuts to spending.