The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted 217-213 to approve a stopgap funding bill to keep federal agencies running for the next six months, staving off a partial government shutdown while cutting overall spending by around $7 billion.
The vote was mostly along party lines, with one Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden (Maine), voting for the bill and one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.), voting against. The bill cuts non-defense discretionary funding by $13 billion while increasing defense spending by $6 billion to fund warship construction and a pay raise for junior military personnel, Reuters reported.
The bill now heads to the Senate, where it will need the support of at least eight Democrats to pass.
The House bill comes as President Donald Trump works to rein in government waste. Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, says its cost-cutting measures have saved taxpayers an estimated $55 billion since Trump’s inauguration. Musk’s team is also reviewing the Pentagon’s $890 billion budget, which accounts for around half of all federal discretionary spending.
This bill, however, excludes DOGE’s proposed cuts, which House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) said Republicans will incorporate in next fiscal year’s budget. It also preserves funding for major spending programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
In addition to cutting funding, the House bill also strips more than $1 billion from Washington, D.C.’s budget for the remainder of the fiscal year. D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser (D.) protested the bill outside the Capitol on Monday, arguing the cuts are “not savings for the federal government” but “simply damage to the District.”
This article was originally published at freebeacon.com
