Updated September 19, 2025 at 10:44 AM PDT
The House voted 217 to 212 on Friday to approve a short-term spending bill to fund the government though Nov. 21. But the government appeared to inch closer to a shutdown after Democrats in the Senate blocked the measure as part of their push to use the spending debate to address expiring health care subsidies.
After clearing the House, the GOP spending bill failed in the Senate by a vote of 44 to 48. A competing plan offered by Democrats, which would pair government funding with additional dollars for health care, also failed by a vote of 47 to 45.
Congress has until Sept. 30 to fund the federal government and avoid a government shutdown, but the House went on recess following the vote and Republicans are threatening to stay out of Washington until after the deadline as a way to put pressure on Democrats.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters after the vote that a stop-gap is the "responsible thing to do" and accused Democrats of making the bill "a partisan exercise."
"If they choose to vote against this clean, completely non-partisan [spending bill], then they will be choosing to shut the government down and they'll own the consequences," Johnson said.
Republican leaders have repeatedly argued that Democrats regularly support extending current funding levels if Congress is unable to agree on new annual spending bills.
But Democrats, some of whom provided the needed support in March to pass a continuing resolution or "CR," say this time is different. They say millions of people who rely on expanded federal subsidies as part of the Affordable Care Act are at risk of losing their health care coverage if Congress fails to act. All but one Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, voted against the spending bill in the House on Friday.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., repeatedly rejected the framing that the spending bill is non-partisan.
"We will not support a partisan spending bill that Republicans are trying to jam down the throats of the American people that continues to gut health care," Jeffries told reporters on Tuesday.
House and Senate Democrats released their own bill Wednesday to continue funding levels through October 31. Their plan would reverse Medicaid changes made in the GOP-led tax plan that became law in July and extend health care subsidies that will expire at the end of the year. The bill also includes additional money for enhanced security measures for lawmakers, executive branch officials and members of the federal judiciary.
Dueling plans both fail in the Senate
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., called the Democrats' proposal "dirty" and a reversal of strategy after Democratic leaders passed stopgap bills 13 times when they controlled the Senate and Joe Biden was president. Thune said the bill was "packed full of partisan policies and measures designed to appeal to Democrats' leftist base."
But Democrats successfully pressured their Republican counterparts to allow a vote on their proposal as well. Both the GOP measure and the Democratic alternative failed on Friday.
"Republicans choose: either listen to Donald Trump and shut the government down, or break this logjam by supporting our bill and keeping the government open," the Senate's top Democrat, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday.
Schumer, who voted with Republicans to fund the government in March, is facing tremendous political pressure from grassroots activists to fight Republicans and the Trump administration.
Schumer said Thursday the GOP can't count on help from Democrats to get the 60 votes needed to advance the bill in the chamber.
"Americans are tired of the failed, chaotic, high cost status quo, which decimates their health care, which raises their costs and which Republicans are defending in their bill," Schumer said in a statement.
Most Senate Democrats say voting against the spending bill is one way to push back on Trump administration decisions such as cancelling funding for programs Congress previously approved, laying off federal workers and using executive actions to avoid congressional consent.
"I do not think Democrats have an obligation to fund the destruction of our democracy," Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told reporters on Thursday.
The fight over health care splits congressional Republicans. While no GOP lawmaker voted for the Affordable Care Act and many have spent years attempting to repeal all or part of the law, the program has become popular. And many publicly say Congress should continue some federal subsidies to help working class Americans purchase health plans.
Speaker Johnson didn't rule out future legislation to address the expiration of the ACA subsidies. He said he didn't think it should be part of this month's funding debate, but was an issue on the table for December.
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