House Rules Committee advances stopgap government funding billin effort to avoid shutdown

House Republicans on Monday advanced a short-term funding bill — opposed by congressional Democrats — that would avert a government shutdown. The GOP plan to keep the government open through September cleared the House Rules Committee in a 9-3 vote, with every Democrat on the panel voting against it. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has said he plans to bring the measure before the full House floor for final vote on Tuesday. The bill — a continuing resolution that will essentially extend fiscal 2024 spending levels through the start of the 2026 fiscal year — is backed by President Trump, who was working the phones earlier Monday to convince House GOP holdouts to back the measure. The continuing resolution must pass the House, Senate and be signed by the 78-year-old president by midnight Friday to keep government operations running without interruption. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who refuses to back the measure, claims it will impose “the largest cut to Medicaid in American history.”“They’ve also put a target on the back of Social Security and Medicare,” Jeffries said of his Republican colleagues, accusing them of also targeting cuts for “nutritional assistance for children and families.”“Republicans are trying to rip health care away from tens of millions of Americans,” he said.House Republicans have rejected Jeffries’ claims. “That’s a completely separate issue from discretionary appropriation bills, that’s all mandatory funding,” one senior House GOP aide said on a phone call briefing reporters Saturday.The aides pointed out that the only cuts included were “side deals” made between former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), former President Joe Biden and then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as part of the Fiscal Responsibility Act in 2023.Under the measure, defense spending will get a $6 billion boost from fiscal year 2024, but non-defense discretionary spending will fall $13 billion be...