US House Republicans unveil six-month stopgap bill to avert shutdown

Republicans in control of the U.S. House of Representatives unveiled their six-month stopgap government funding bill on Saturday to avoid a potential government shutdown on March 14.

The proposal would fund the government through September, the end of the 2025 fiscal year, and mostly maintain levels of spending passed during the last administration, reports USA Today.

The House is expected to vote on the 99-page funding bill on Tuesday, Republican leadership staff told reporters on Saturday. The aides said the funding package - called a continuing resolution because it would maintain funding approved from last year - has been closely coordinated with the White House. President Donald Trump has also signaled his support as this could clear the way for Republicans in control of both chambers of the U.S. Congress to focus on extending the 2017 tax cuts implemented by Trump in his first term.

The president's support for this stopgap funding plan has encouraged some hard line Republicans who have previously voted against similar stopgap funding bills, a crucial hurdle in the chamber where House Speaker Mike Johnson leads a slim Republican 218-214 majority. The recently proposed cuts from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency are not included in this latest stopgap funding bill. Johnson has said those cuts can be addressed in next year's government spending negotiations.

Nonetheless, Republican and Democratic appropriation negotiators had been trying to come together in recent weeks to pass the required 12 government spending bills for the 2025 fiscal year, but the Trump administration's cuts to the federal workforce and ongoing threats to withhold congressionally-appropriated spending have stymied agreement.


House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Friday said his Democratic caucus could not support a partisan funding plan by Republicans.

"I strongly oppose this full-year continuing resolution, which is a power grab for the White House and further allows unchecked billionaire Elon Musk and President Trump to steal from the American people," Representative Rosa DeLauro, the top Democratic House appropriator said in a statement after the funding bill was released.