WASHINGTON – Lawmakers in the U.S. House scrambled to meet the deadline to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government on Friday, with the looming threat of a government shutdown at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
In the spirit of “third time’s a charm,” the House pulled through by passing a spending bill in the end. However, the day consisted of conflict among House Republicans.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert was involved.
In the end, the House passed the bill without President-elect Donald Trump’s ask of raising the debt ceiling limit. Boebert voted “no” on the final version that passed.
The showdown began Tuesday night when the original bill text was released.
Totaling to 1,500 pages, the original bill included pay raises for members of Congress and $10 billion in economic assistance to farmers. However, Trump was dissatisfied with the deal. What Trump wanted was a raise on the debt ceiling limit.
Hard-right conservatives also rejected the bill. As Boebert put it on X, the bill was “DOA,” or dead on arrival.
However, a shorter 100-page version of the bill was released on Thursday to take care of Trump’s dissatisfaction. Aid for farmers was included in the new version, but other provisions were cut. Trump backed the new plan and encouraged House members to vote “yes.”
“All Republicans, and even the Democrats, should do what is best for our Country, and vote “YES” for this Bill, TONIGHT!” Trump said on Truth Social.
However, that bill also failed to pass as a result of Democratic opposition and 38 Republicans who voted against it.
House Republicans met in the Capitol basement Friday to sort out disagreements. In an interview with reporters after leaving the meeting, Boebert said it would be best for the continuing resolution to be divided up into individual bills, including economic assistance to farmers. But she said she would agree to support one bill to get it to the Senate.
“I'm not in favor of putting this all together and voting for one CR (continuing resolution),” Boebert told The Durango Herald and other reporters. “I would agree with some sort of a merge process, something that I'm typically against, but because of the Senate's deadlines and their rules that they have and picking up multiple pieces of legislation, I think us having these individual bills and having those votes is best.”
Boebert said the Trump team was clued in on all negotiations.
“President Trump seems to be in on everything at this point,” Boebert said. “We've spoke with many folks from his team. We've spoke with vice president (elect) and communications are getting back to him and we hope that he would support whatever direction we end up going with.”
In the end, Trump’s ask to raise the debt ceiling was not fulfilled. Boebert voted “no” on the final version that passed, which was not divided up into individual bills.
The failure of getting two bills to fund the government through the House, as well as debate on what to include in the continuing resolution, resulted in a looming threat for a government shutdown.
The Accelerating Access to Care Act, sponsored by Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, was included in the original continuing resolution, but was not included in the second version.
The bill was meant to “help ensure children enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program can receive timely health care without facing unnecessary barriers simply based on where they live.”
“There’s a lot of things, including that one that should have been passed,” Grassley said. “But you can't shut down the government because you don't get everything you want.”
Sen. John Hickenlooper said the House needed to come to an agreement on where to go next.
“All this stirring and drawing out – all this anxiety, all this, just, commotion – is not where we should be spending our time,” Hickenlooper said.
Maria Tedesco is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at mtedesco@durangoherald.com.
