House to vote on 3-month funding extension to avoid government shutdown

Washington — The House is set to vote Wednesday on a stopgap measure to keep the government funded for three months, after Speaker Mike Johnson embraced a clean temporary funding measure that will need support from Democrats to pass. 

Last week, the House rejected Johnson's initial funding plan, which would have kept the government funded for around six months and was paired with a noncitizen voting measure that Democrats viewed as a nonstarter. After the setback, which was driven in part by his own party, the speaker said he would opt to bring up a vote on a measure to extend funding through Dec. 20 without the voting proposal, rather than risk a government shutdown weeks ahead of Election Day. 

Then on Monday, Johnson was delivered another setback when the stopgap measure failed to secure enough support on the House Rules Committee, forcing House leadership to bring up the funding bill for a floor vote under suspension of the rules — a process that requires support from two-thirds of the chamber for passage.