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US Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Photo: AFP

Politico | US House approves stopgap spending measure to avert shutdown

  • Democrats reach deal with Republicans on aid for farmers and nutritional assistance to children
  • Deal avoids a government shutdown in the middle of a pandemic and ahead of elections

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Sarah Ferris, Caitlin Emma and Heather Caygle on politico.com on September 22, 2020.

The US House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly voted to extend federal funding through to December 11, while punting the threat of a government shutdown until after the presidential election.

The bipartisan vote comes hours after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin clinched a last-minute deal to include billions in nutrition assistance and trade relief payments for farmers, capping weeks of contentious negotiations.

The short-term funding fix now goes to the Senate, where it’s expected to easily pass before the September 30 deadline. If signed by President Donald Trump, it would also postpone a slew of contentious funding fights – from the border wall to the renaming of Confederate monuments at military installations – to the lame-duck session of Congress.

“We have an agreement that will keep the government functioning for the people,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat, said on the floor, recapping the back-and-forth of negotiations in recent weeks. “There was a lot of to and fro-ing, a lot of people wanted this, a lot of people wanted that, a lot of people didn’t want this … This is the best we have, so we need to take it.”

The bipartisan accord represents a remarkable turnaround after negotiations collapsed late last week after Democrats objected to the Republican Party’s demands for trade relief payments, prompting some lawmakers and aides to privately worry that Washington was coming perilously close to the September 30 deadline with no agreement to keep the government open.

Congressional leaders relaunched funding talks on Tuesday, scrapping plans to vote on the Democrats’ own version of that bill the same day. Ultimately, Hill leaders agreed to include US$8 billion in nutrition assistance – four times what Democrats had originally pushed for – in exchange for tens of billions of dollars in farmer trade relief payments requested by the White House.

The deal on a funding measure comes as Democrats and Republicans remain at a stalemate in the broader negotiations over exactly how to deliver more aid to millions of Americans suffering from the economic fallout of the pandemic.

US President Donald Trump. Photo: AFP

Both Democrats and Republicans had been eager to reach a deal to avert last-minute drama, though the two parties squabbled for weeks over various funding and policy provisions in the temporary funding bill.

Pelosi had originally planned to push through her party’s version of a short-term spending fix, despite fierce Republican Party objections over the lack of aid for farmers amid the ongoing trade war. But Pelosi told her caucus on Tuesday morning that she was again in talks with Republicans.

A deal had appeared to be coming together last Friday, including tens of billions of dollars in farmer payments that Republicans sought in exchange for US$2 billion in pandemic-related nutritional assistance that Democrats wanted.

But last-minute objections to the trade relief including Democratic concerns that the president is leveraging the money to boost his re-election chances – tanked the talks. House Democrats ultimately released legislation without Republican demands, drawing the ire of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who tweeted that it “shamefully leaves out key relief” for farmers.

Earlier last week, Democrats had dropped requests to extend the Census Bureau’s December 31 deadline to turn over apportionment data used to divvy up House seats to the president – potentially punting the final handling of census data to Democratic nominee Joe Biden if he’s elected this November. Democrats had also failed to secure US$3.6 billion in election security grants.

Heather Cayle and Helena Bottemiller Evich contributed to this report.

Read Politico’s story here.

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