This week on the Hill: House aims to pass measure to avert shutdown ahead of midterms

The House is back in session this week after a monthlong August recess, with lawmakers aiming to avert a government shutdown before funding expires Sept. 30 amid the 2026 election season.

The biggest item on the agenda will be a Senate-passed stopgap measure, also known as a continuing resolution (CR), that would keep the government funded through Dec. 11. The Senate passed the measure 90-6 earlier this month, sending it to a House that had previously passed its own stopgap bill extending funding through Dec. 4.

The bill is expected to have both GOP and Democratic support.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement earlier this month that the measure is a “clear improvement” over the House-passed stopgap measure.

The Senate remains out of session and is not scheduled to return until Sept. 14, leaving several top Republican priorities in limbo, including a third reconciliation bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and a farm bill.

The House may also take up a measure this week to censure Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) after the House Ethics Committee found his conduct with two young staff members had violated “the spirit” of the chamber’s rules against sexual harassment.

Meanwhile on the campaign trail, Massachusetts is expected to be in the spotlight as incumbent Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) go head-to-head in the Senate Democratic primary on Tuesday.

Six candidates are also vying for the Democratic nomination for Massachusetts 6th Congressional District, a seat that Moulton currently represents and is rated “Solid Democrat” by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

House to hold vote on CR: The Senate-passed stopgap funding measure is expected to advance through the lower chamber.

House to consider socialism resolution: The House will consider a resolution condemning socialism in all its forms.

House could take up Edwards censure: The lower chamber could take up a resolution to censure Edwards over sexual harassment allegations.

Markey and Moulton face off: Markey, 80, is hoping to retain his seat, while Moulton, 47, has been arguing for generational change.

Six candidates battle in Democratic primary: The race will determine who will advance to the general election to represent Massachusetts 6th District.

House to take up Senate stopgap funding measure

House GOP leaders are aiming to put the Senate CR on the floor under a fast-track process known as suspension of the rules, which requires two-thirds majority support for a measure to pass.

The Senate version of the CR was negotiated with Democrats and passed the upper chamber overwhelmingly — a signal that neither party is interested in risking a shutdown just before the midterms.

The CR contains a provision to temporarily halt a rule from the White House budget office that would give political appointees in the executive branch more authority over dispersing federal grants — language that might not bode well with some House Republicans.

Still, the measure is expected to pass the lower chamber with broad bipartisan support.

“This bill is a clear improvement over the House Republican continuing resolution, but we are still nearly two months away from the end of the fiscal year and should be working together to pass full-year funding bills that lower the cost of living, rein in the corruption at the highest levels of the government, and can earn the support of Democrats and Republicans in the House and in the Senate,” DeLauro said.

Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) previously told The Hill that he needs to look at the Senate CR “a little bit more closely to understand the differences. But my understanding is that the bills are not so far apart that we won’t be able to get to an answer.”

Asked about whether he was confident Republicans will get a CR across the finish line, Fine said, “I’m very confident about the CR because the Senate has passed one. So while they’re not the same, the fact that they have interest in doing it, and we have interest in doing it, makes me optimistic we’ll get something over the finish line.”

The stopgap measure comes as the House has only passed three out of the 12 appropriations bills needed to fund the government.

Both Democratic and Republican appropriators in the Senate, meanwhile, remain deadlocked over topline spending levels, and the upper chamber has not yet passed any of the 12 annual appropriations bills before the September deadline.

House to consider resolution condemning socialism

The House Rules Committee will meet Monday to consider a GOP-backed resolution that would condemn and denounce “socialism in its all forms, including the Democratic Socialists of America, and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States.”

The resolution comes as a string of progressive Democrats — some of whom are members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) — have won congressional primaries across the country.

House Republicans have hammered the democratic socialists, arguing that their ideas are radical and would only drive up the cost of living and make it harder for Americans to make ends meet.

The resolution also calls for the enactment of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, which requires proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and the presentation of an ID to cast a ballot.

House could take up a resolution censuring Edwards

The lower chamber may take up a resolution this week to censure Edwards, after the House Ethics Committee said it found his conduct with two young staff members had violated “the spirit” of the chamber’s rules against sexual harassment and unwanted advances and recommended he be formally censured by the full House.

That conduct included bringing one staffer on a trip to New York City that lasted an extra day for his birthday and included extra activities like a helicopter ride and Broadway show; writing poems for a staffer and crying during a slideshow at her going away office party; telling a staffer he left early from an event because she brought a date; sending personal texts late in the evenings; paying for massages and spa treatments for the staffer; and paying for a singer to go to a staffer’s birthday party to sing Ed Sheeran’s “The Hills of Aberfeldy” and saying it was “from a special someone.”

Edwards issued a letter to colleagues last week denouncing the Ethics Committee report. In his letter, he wrote that there are no House rules prohibiting members of Congress and staff from being friends, spending social time together or “genuinely and deeply caring” about each other.

“Those distinctions matter. Otherwise, perfectly permissible conduct can become evidence of wrongdoing simply by accumulating enough examples of it and assigning them an improper motive,” the letter reads.

“Ten permissible acts do not become misconduct merely because they are placed together in ten paragraphs,” it continues.

Edwards has already dropped his bid for reelection, but Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) previously said the House should follow through on censuring him.

Markey and Moulton face off in Senate primary

The Massachusetts Senate Democratic primary will feature a tough contest between Markey and Moulton.

Moulton has framed the race around generational change while questioning Markey’s progressive bona fides. He’s suggested the Massachusetts senator has not done enough to fight back against the Trump administration and advance priorities like the Green New Deal.

“I’m running against the senator’s decision after 50 years in Washington, to run for another term at age 80,” the congressman said in a final debate. “I believe in a new generation of leadership. I believe we can do better than the status quo.”

Moulton has garnered support from Democrats like New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill and Reps. Derek Tran (Calif.), Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.), Seth Magaziner (R.I.) and Pat Ryan (N.Y.).

Markey, meanwhile, has railed against his attacks, pointing to his central role in authoring the climate-oriented policy while seeking to tie the congressman to past votes and statements on everything from the Iran war to transgender rights. He’s also noted that he received endorsements from key progressives including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

“If you pass the torch to Congressman Moulton, you’re going to get burned. Massachusetts deserves better than a Senator who throws trans kids under the bus and uses public office as a personal self enrichment fund,” Markey wrote on social media last week.

Polling has shown Markey comfortably leading Moulton in the contest. The winner of the September primary will be the heavy favorite to win the Senate seat in the Bay State come November.

Six candidates vie for Democratic nomination

The crowded Democratic primary for Moulton’s seat in Massachusetts’s 6th Congressional District is shaping up as a wide-open contest, with six candidates from varied professional and political backgrounds vying for the nomination ahead of the Sept. 1 primary.

The field includes Bethany Andres-Beck, a software engineer; John Beccia, a business leader; Jamie Belsito, a former state representative; Dan Koh, a former White House and Boston City Hall official; Mariah Lancaster, a veterinarian and former science policy advisor in the U.S. House; and state Rep. Tram Nguyen.

Koh has perhaps the strongest name recognition in the field, thanks in large part to his experience in the Biden administration. He served in several senior roles under former President Biden, including as deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, after previously serving as chief of staff to then-Labor Secretary Marty Walsh.

He has received endorsements from Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

But Beccia has also been garnering the attention of voters, as he frames himself as a political outsider who will bring a fresh new perspective to Congress.

“Washington insiders write the rules, trade on them, and then promise to fix the system on their way in. It’s time to end that,” Beccia wrote on social media earlier this month.

Caroline Vakil, Emily Brooks, Ashleigh Fields and Julia Mueller contributed to this report.