Conservatives who had worked to oust Boehner for years had pushed GOP leaders to use the spending bill as leverage in a fight over Planned Parenthood funding, urging them to let the government shutter if necessary.
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But the bill only funds the government through December. 11, setting up another battle just before the holiday season.
Obama hailed the congressional action.
Diane Black: Well, we will try any method that we can at this point in time. “They are the main health providers for lots and lots of women“, he said.
The legislation comes in response to controversial videos from an anti-abortion group, which claim to show Planned Parenthood officials discussing the harvest and sale of tissue from aborted fetuses.
The House did separately vote to block government funds from Planned Parenthood.
The measure passed the Senate 78-20 earlier Wednesday, and the House 277-151, with the overwhelming support of Democrats in each chamber, as well as a few Republicans. After last week’s vote failed, McConnell on Monday orchestrated a bipartisan 77-19 vote on a funding bill – stripped of the Planned Parenthood provision – to force a final vote.
The controversy over Planned Parenthood funding threatened a repeat of a 17-day shutdown in October 2013 that was prompted by Republican demands to deny federal funding for Obama’s healthcare law, the Affordable Care Act.
“This was a mistake, and it’s why people are so frustrated with Washington“.
“In the coming weeks, Congress must come together to avert further crisis and negotiate a budget that will responsibly end the sequester and meet the needs of the American people”.
Approval of such stopgap measures used to be routine, but debate this year exposed acrimonious divisions between pragmatic Republicans such as House Speaker John Boehner and more junior lawmakers in the party’s tea party wing who are less inclined to compromise.
With the threat of shutdown defused, Republican leaders in Congress are turning toward talks with Obama over a long-term budget agreement for the remainder of fiscal year 2016, and potentially beyond.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the likely next House Speaker, voted to keep the government open Wednesday.
The U.S. government remains constrained by spending curbs that have essentially frozen budget levels since 2011. Republicans are leading the drive to boost defense while Obama is demanding equal relief for domestic programs.
Nita Lowey, the House Appropriations Committee’s top Democrat, remained “deeply concerned about the potential of finding ourselves facing a government shutdown again in December”, she said.
“However”, Rogers added, “this legislation is absolutely necessary, as the alternative – a government shutdown – is reckless and irresponsible”.
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In addition to the spending bill, the House will also vote on a measure known as an “enrollment correction” that would defund Planned Parenthood.
