The U.S. House on Tuesday passed a spending package totaling more than $1 trillion, ending the partial government shutdown which had begun on Saturday. The package passed as part of a deal to avoid a broader government shutdown.
Under the package, the government’s largest departments, such as the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Defense, will be funded through the end of the fiscal year in September.
But the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration enforcement, is only funded through February 13. This may queue up a coming budgetary fight, with Democrats intending to force reforms onto immigration enforcement.
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), a senior Democrat, urged his colleagues to vote for the bill “to make sure that our federal employees come to work and do their job for the American people and get paid for it.” Hoyer added that “there will be a lot of time to debate the operations of Homeland Security and, in my view, the laws that they are breaking, the Constitution that they are not respecting and the human rights that they are underlining.”
The funding package passed by 217-214, but did not follow the usual partisan lines, with 21 Republicans voting against the bill and 21 Democrats for it. An earlier procedural vote to advance the package, necessary for it to be voted on, had passed 217-215, with only Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) breaking ranks to vote against it.
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