House aims to avoid government shutdown amid GOP hardliner resistance

The U.S. House on Tuesday is expected to vote on a stopgap spending measure that would avert a government shutdown this fall ahead of the 2026 midterm election, though GOP hardliners are vowing to complicate things.

The legislation, which the Senate passed in August before breaking for its summer recess, would keep the government funded through Dec. 11. Without passage, government funding is set to lapse at the end of the federal fiscal year, Sept. 30. That’s a prospect neither party is keen on as lawmakers hope to quickly return to their districts and continue campaigning ahead of the midterms. 

House leadership plans to bring the bill to the floor using a process known as “suspension of the rules,” which allows consensus measures to circumvent certain procedural hurdles but requires a two-thirds vote. That means Democratic votes will be needed in the narrowly divided chamber, and broad, bipartisan support is expected.

But members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus have raised a series of concerns with both the bill and the process. They’re threatening to hold up what House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., expected would be a quick vote to pass the measure, which would extend current government funding levels.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, sent a letter on Monday to House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole, R-Okla., and House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, outlining his concerns with the stopgap spending measure, among them its funding for Planned Parenthood and the absence of a ban on hemp products that contain THC, the psychoactive chemical in marijuana.

“I have serious concerns about simply extending the status quo. Members should be clear about what passage of this legislation would mean: Congress would once again affirmatively fund policies we have spent months fighting to change,” Roy wrote.

And Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., who chairs the Freedom Caucus, told Punchbowl News he would vote to block the rest of the GOP’s agenda for the week over his opposition to the spending measure.

Their opposition could complicate the vote, though with Democratic support, Johnson would likely be able to pass the funding measure even with some GOP defections.

And most lawmakers will be eager to get back to their districts this election season, as Republicans are striving to overcome President Donald Trump’s low approval rating to hold on to narrow majorities in the House and Senate. Polling shows Democrats are largely expected to win control of the House, while the GOP is favored in the Senate.