House Republicans are close to locking in the necessary votes to keep the government open past Friday’s deadline.
GOP leaders are “inching closer” to the magic number of 217 votes for both a stopgap bill and a disaster aid package, a GOP leadership source told The Hill on Thursday. But the source cautioned that it wasn’t a done deal.
Both Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) expressed confidence to reporters Thursday that the continuing resolution would pass Thursday, though they wouldn’t say where the whip count is.
The House Rules Committee approved the spending and emergency relief bills for floor votes, which will take place late Thursday afternoon.
Momentum began building Thursday for leadership’s plan to fund the government through Jan. 19 after the vote count remained in question amid a backlash from defense hawks and House Freedom Caucus members.
But with the shutdown clock ticking — and members eager not to overshadow their victory on tax reform — it appears that more Republicans have come on board with the plan.
Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, announced that he would back the strategy, clearing one of the major hurdles standing in leadership’s way.
President Trump also pushed House Republicans to back the continuing resolution (CR) and avoid a shutdown, which McCarthy thought was “helpful.” Current funding runs out on Friday at midnight.
“House Democrats want a SHUTDOWN for the holidays in order to distract from the very popular, just passed, Tax Cuts. House Republicans, don’t let this happen. Pass the C.R. TODAY and keep our Government OPEN!” Trump tweeted.
Defense hawks had been furious that the stopgap bill doesn’t provide full-year funding for defense programs — something that Speaker Paul Ryan(R-Wis.) promised his conference several weeks ago. But a bill that included it would have been dead on arrival in the Senate.
Members of the Armed Services Committee huddled Thursday morning in the Rayburn Building to discuss whether the group would continue demanding a full year of funding for the Pentagon. But after Trump’s tweet, they appeared to be getting on board with leadership’s plan.
Thornberry said he agreed to support the CR because he wanted to give leadership the “time and space” to get a deal on budget caps early next year — and thought most of his fellow defense hawks would follow suit.
“I think [the CR] will pass and I think — I can’t speak for everybody, but as I’ve said, we’ve had some very intense conversations with each other and with leadership and extending to the administration about this topic, and I think most will,” he said.
Asked whether most defense hawks would back the clean CR on the floor, one Armed Services member replied: “Looks like that is the direction we are headed.”
Another member of the Armed Services Committee told The Hill he would vote “yes” on the CR and the disaster supplemental.
Some conservatives had also been concerned that the CR includes language to temporarily extend a surveillance program authorized by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
But Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said several members of his group flipped from “no” to “yes” after securing a commitment from leadership late Wednesday night that his group would be allowed to offer requested amendments to a long-term FISA bill further down the road.
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