Congress Sends Funding Bill to Avert US Shutdown to Trump

(Bloomberg) -- Congress cleared funding legislation to avert an Oct. 1 government shutdown, sidestepping, at least temporarily, the partisan warfare that led to repeated disruptions over the last year.

By a vote of 370 to 48, the House Tuesday overwhelmingly passed the stopgap funding bill to finance the government through Dec. 11, pushing funding battles until after the November midterm elections. The measure, which the Senate approved in early August, now heads to President Donald Trump.

Trump has vowed not to sign any legislation until Congress passes new voter identification requirements. But he could simply allow the bill to become law after 10 days, a passive stance he took with bipartisan housing legislation earlier in the summer.

A stopgap bill is needed because none of the 12 annual spending bills for the new fiscal year have been approved by Congress. Enactment of the legislation puts off until after the election hard decisions about potential increases to the Pentagon budget and Republican proposals to further cut social safety net programs.

"This bill contains no poison pills and no partisan riders," House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole said just before the vote, adding that the legislation has the White House's support.

Passage of the stopgap comes as congressional Republicans are prepared to punt consideration of a separate $95 billion bill intended to provide emergency Iran war funding until after the elections. A proposal to increase the base Pentagon budget by $350 billion paid for in part by anti-fraud efforts in healthcare programs is also being kicked into the autumn.

The smooth sailing for the stopgap contrasts to the vitriolic battles over funding that characterized most of this fiscal year. A battle over expiring Obamacare premium subsidies led Senate Democrats last year to trigger the longest government shutdown in history while a separate battle over immigration enforcement funding led to a record shuttering of the Department of Homeland Security earlier this year.

Another shutdown before the midterms would have resulted in lengthy waits at airport screenings and other disruptions, risking turning off voters in both parties.