Senate passes stopgap funding bill to prevent shutdown ahead of midterms
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The Senate voted early Saturday morning to fund the federal government until Dec. 11 with the aim of averting another government shutdown before the midterm election, sending the bill to the House before leaving for a five-week recess.
The continuing resolution (CR) passed 90-6 after Republicans spent days haggling over a provision inserted by the White House into the legislation that would have delayed a ban on hemp-derived THC products until December.
Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.) voted present because the measure included a death benefit to her brother’s, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.), heir.
Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) voted no.
The legislation includes another provision demanded by Democrats and some Republicans on the Appropriations Committee, including Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), to temporarily halt a rule from the White House budget office that would give political appointees in the executive branch more authority over dispersing federal grants.
Democrats insisted that the short-term funding measure needed to include language to freeze the White House budget office’s rulemaking if it was to pass before September, according to senators familiar with the bipartisan negotiations.
Collins, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, also opposed the White House budget office rulemaking, calling it “deeply flawed.”
She asked Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, in a letter last month to withdraw the rule.
The vote on the continuing resolution finally came early Saturday morning after Republicans spent hours battling among themselves over setting up a series of votes to fund the government, confirm Attorney General Todd Blanche, and require voters to show photo identification for federal elections.
The final agreement to speed up consideration of the stopgap government funding measure was delayed for much of Thursday and Friday because of a disagreement over how to handle a separate bill crafted by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) to set new rules for recruiting and compensating college athletes.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) announced the early-morning vote to fund the government after Cruz agreed to delay floor consideration of the Protect College Sports Act until September.
The measure now goes to the House, which is scheduled to return on Aug. 31, for a vote.
Federal funding is due to expire on Sept. 30 without action from Congress.
Some House Republicans may not be thrilled about the provisions that quash the White House budget office’s rulemaking to exert more executive-branch authority over congressionally funded grants.
House fiscal conservatives, in particular, may balk at an extension of federal funding without spending cuts to reduce the deficit.
But the passage of the Senate-approved measure is hardly in doubt after it passed with such an overwhelming margin in the upper chamber.
Usually, Congress passes short-term government funding measures shortly before funding is due to lapse. But with the midterm elections less than three months away, lawmakers in both parties didn’t want to risk until waiting until late September to fund the government.
Both Republican and Democratic senators were eager to avoid another protracted standoff after enduring a record-breaking 43-day government shutdown in October and November.
That grueling fight was followed by another fierce partisan battle over funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol that caused the Department of Homeland Security to shut down earlier this year.
“I think it’s the most important thing for us to do,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.). “Because I don’t think we need to have the harbinger of a possible government shutdown. So, take it off the table. I think we all want to do that.”
Some Republicans had warned for months that Democrats would try to shut down the government right before the midterm election in order to accuse Republicans of not being up to the task of governing.
“I think my Democratic friends are going to shut down the government right before the midterms,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) warned in the spring.
Thune made passing a funding bill to keep the government open past the election one of his top priorities before the August recess.
He warned that he would use the budget reconciliation process to fund the entire federal government if Democrats blocked the continuing resolution under regular order. Budget reconciliation enables the minority party to circumvent a filibuster.
In the end, however, Democrats were as eager as Republicans to avoid another shutdown.
“For months, Democrats have been clear: we want to fund the government, avoid a shutdown, and pass strong, bipartisan appropriations bills that improve people’s lives,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) said in a statement.
Quick passage of the funding measure was complicated by an animated fight among Republicans over language slipped into the bill at the White House’s request to delay the implementation of a ban on hemp-derived intoxicants such as delta-8, which are often sold at gas stations and not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Republican senators were caught off guard by the late addition of the provision delaying the ban and some of them vented their frustration with White House legislative staff over the issue at a tense lunch meeting on Tuesday.
Some Republicans, however, supported delaying the ban on hemp-related products to support the hemp industries in their state, including Sen. Rand Paul (R) of Kentucky and Sens. Steve Daines (R) and Tim Sheehy (R) of Montana.
The GOP critics of the proposal to delay the ban led by Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) attempted to strip it out of the bill but senators voted 61 to 32 to table Budd’s amendment to do so.
Budd warned on the Senate floor before the vote that Congress last year voted to ban the unregulated sale of intoxicating hemp products
“These products are made to look exactly like something a kid would want. Emergency Departments have seen a 461-percent increase in cases of pediatric cannabis poisoning. Most of those were children four years old or younger,” he said.
Sheehy, in a video uploaded to social media, argued hemp-derived products have “provided in many cases a natural and healthy way” for people suffering from pain, such as military veterans, to find relief.
“That’s been life-changing for a lot of people. A lot of them I know personally, which is why I’ve taken up this cause,” he said.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗ · Axios ↗ · The Hill ↗
The Senate voted early Saturday morning to fund the federal government until Dec. 11 with the aim of averting another government shutdown before the midterm election, sending the…
This lens runs the verified story through Cinnamon's AI — wired in the next step.
Skip to content
The Senate voted early Saturday morning to fund the federal government until Dec. 11 with the aim of averting another government shutdown before the midterm election, sending the bill to the House before leaving for a five-week recess.
The continuing resolution (CR) passed 90-6 after Republicans spent days haggling over a provision inserted by the White House into the legislation that would have delayed a ban on hemp-derived THC products until December.
Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.) voted present because the measure included a death benefit to her brother’s, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.), heir.
Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) voted no.
The legislation includes another provision demanded by Democrats and some Republicans on the Appropriations Committee, including Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), to temporarily halt a rule from the White House budget office that would give political appointees in the executive branch more authority over dispersing federal grants.
Democrats insisted that the short-term funding measure needed to include language to freeze the White House budget office’s rulemaking if it was to pass before September, according to senators familiar with the bipartisan negotiations.
Collins, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, also opposed the White House budget office rulemaking, calling it “deeply flawed.”
She asked Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, in a letter last month to withdraw the rule.
The vote on the continuing resolution finally came early Saturday morning after Republicans spent hours battling among themselves over setting up a series of votes to fund the government, confirm Attorney General Todd Blanche, and require voters to show photo identification for federal elections.
The final agreement to speed up consideration of the stopgap government funding measure was delayed for much of Thursday and Friday because of a disagreement over how to handle a separate bill crafted by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) to set new rules for recruiting and compensating college athletes.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) announced the early-morning vote to fund the government after Cruz agreed to delay floor consideration of the Protect College Sports Act until September.
The measure now goes to the House, which is scheduled to return on Aug. 31, for a vote.
Federal funding is due to expire on Sept. 30 without action from Congress.
Some House Republicans may not be thrilled about the provisions that quash the White House budget office’s rulemaking to exert more executive-branch authority over congressionally funded grants.
House fiscal conservatives, in particular, may balk at an extension of federal funding without spending cuts to reduce the deficit.
But the passage of the Senate-approved measure is hardly in doubt after it passed with such an overwhelming margin in the upper chamber.
Usually, Congress passes short-term government funding measures shortly before funding is due to lapse. But with the midterm elections less than three months away, lawmakers in both parties didn’t want to risk until waiting until late September to fund the government.
Both Republican and Democratic senators were eager to avoid another protracted standoff after enduring a record-breaking 43-day government shutdown in October and November.
That grueling fight was followed by another fierce partisan battle over funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol that caused the Department of Homeland Security to shut down earlier this year.
“I think it’s the most important thing for us to do,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.). “Because I don’t think we need to have the harbinger of a possible government shutdown. So, take it off the table. I think we all want to do that.”
Some Republicans had warned for months that Democrats would try to shut down the government right before the midterm election in order to accuse Republicans of not being up to the task of governing.
“I think my Democratic friends are going to shut down the government right before the midterms,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) warned in the spring.
Thune made passing a funding bill to keep the government open past the election one of his top priorities before the August recess.
He warned that he would use the budget reconciliation process to fund the entire federal government if Democrats blocked the continuing resolution under regular order. Budget reconciliation enables the minority party to circumvent a filibuster.
In the end, however, Democrats were as eager as Republicans to avoid another shutdown.
“For months, Democrats have been clear: we want to fund the government, avoid a shutdown, and pass strong, bipartisan appropriations bills that improve people’s lives,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) said in a statement.
Quick passage of the funding measure was complicated by an animated fight among Republicans over language slipped into the bill at the White House’s request to delay the implementation of a ban on hemp-derived intoxicants such as delta-8, which are often sold at gas stations and not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Republican senators were caught off guard by the late addition of the provision delaying the ban and some of them vented their frustration with White House legislative staff over the issue at a tense lunch meeting on Tuesday.
Some Republicans, however, supported delaying the ban on hemp-related products to support the hemp industries in their state, including Sen. Rand Paul (R) of Kentucky and Sens. Steve Daines (R) and Tim Sheehy (R) of Montana.
The GOP critics of the proposal to delay the ban led by Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) attempted to strip it out of the bill but senators voted 61 to 32 to table Budd’s amendment to do so.
Budd warned on the Senate floor before the vote that Congress last year voted to ban the unregulated sale of intoxicating hemp products
“These products are made to look exactly like something a kid would want. Emergency Departments have seen a 461-percent increase in cases of pediatric cannabis poisoning. Most of those were children four years old or younger,” he said.
Sheehy, in a video uploaded to social media, argued hemp-derived products have “provided in many cases a natural and healthy way” for people suffering from pain, such as military veterans, to find relief.
“That’s been life-changing for a lot of people. A lot of them I know personally, which is why I’ve taken up this cause,” he said.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗ · Axios ↗ · The Hill ↗
Skip to content
The Senate voted early Saturday morning to fund the federal government until Dec. 11 with the aim of averting another government shutdown before the midterm election, sending the bill to the House before leaving for a five-week recess.
The continuing resolution (CR) passed 90-6 after Republicans spent days haggling over a provision inserted by the White House into the legislation that would have delayed a ban on hemp-derived THC products until December.
Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.) voted present because the measure included a death benefit to her brother’s, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.), heir.
Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) voted no.
The legislation includes another provision demanded by Democrats and some Republicans on the Appropriations Committee, including Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), to temporarily halt a rule from the White House budget office that would give political appointees in the executive branch more authority over dispersing federal grants.
Democrats insisted that the short-term funding measure needed to include language to freeze the White House budget office’s rulemaking if it was to pass before September, according to senators familiar with the bipartisan negotiations.
Collins, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, also opposed the White House budget office rulemaking, calling it “deeply flawed.”
She asked Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, in a letter last month to withdraw the rule.
The vote on the continuing resolution finally came early Saturday morning after Republicans spent hours battling among themselves over setting up a series of votes to fund the government, confirm Attorney General Todd Blanche, and require voters to show photo identification for federal elections.
The final agreement to speed up consideration of the stopgap government funding measure was delayed for much of Thursday and Friday because of a disagreement over how to handle a separate bill crafted by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) to set new rules for recruiting and compensating college athletes.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) announced the early-morning vote to fund the government after Cruz agreed to delay floor consideration of the Protect College Sports Act until September.
The measure now goes to the House, which is scheduled to return on Aug. 31, for a vote.
Federal funding is due to expire on Sept. 30 without action from Congress.
Some House Republicans may not be thrilled about the provisions that quash the White House budget office’s rulemaking to exert more executive-branch authority over congressionally funded grants.
House fiscal conservatives, in particular, may balk at an extension of federal funding without spending cuts to reduce the deficit.
But the passage of the Senate-approved measure is hardly in doubt after it passed with such an overwhelming margin in the upper chamber.
Usually, Congress passes short-term government funding measures shortly before funding is due to lapse. But with the midterm elections less than three months away, lawmakers in both parties didn’t want to risk until waiting until late September to fund the government.
Both Republican and Democratic senators were eager to avoid another protracted standoff after enduring a record-breaking 43-day government shutdown in October and November.
That grueling fight was followed by another fierce partisan battle over funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol that caused the Department of Homeland Security to shut down earlier this year.
“I think it’s the most important thing for us to do,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.). “Because I don’t think we need to have the harbinger of a possible government shutdown. So, take it off the table. I think we all want to do that.”
Some Republicans had warned for months that Democrats would try to shut down the government right before the midterm election in order to accuse Republicans of not being up to the task of governing.
“I think my Democratic friends are going to shut down the government right before the midterms,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) warned in the spring.
Thune made passing a funding bill to keep the government open past the election one of his top priorities before the August recess.
He warned that he would use the budget reconciliation process to fund the entire federal government if Democrats blocked the continuing resolution under regular order. Budget reconciliation enables the minority party to circumvent a filibuster.
In the end, however, Democrats were as eager as Republicans to avoid another shutdown.
“For months, Democrats have been clear: we want to fund the government, avoid a shutdown, and pass strong, bipartisan appropriations bills that improve people’s lives,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) said in a statement.
Quick passage of the funding measure was complicated by an animated fight among Republicans over language slipped into the bill at the White House’s request to delay the implementation of a ban on hemp-derived intoxicants such as delta-8, which are often sold at gas stations and not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Republican senators were caught off guard by the late addition of the provision delaying the ban and some of them vented their frustration with White House legislative staff over the issue at a tense lunch meeting on Tuesday.
Some Republicans, however, supported delaying the ban on hemp-related products to support the hemp industries in their state, including Sen. Rand Paul (R) of Kentucky and Sens. Steve Daines (R) and Tim Sheehy (R) of Montana.
The GOP critics of the proposal to delay the ban led by Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) attempted to strip it out of the bill but senators voted 61 to 32 to table Budd’s amendment to do so.
Budd warned on the Senate floor before the vote that Congress last year voted to ban the unregulated sale of intoxicating hemp products
“These products are made to look exactly like something a kid would want. Emergency Departments have seen a 461-percent increase in cases of pediatric cannabis poisoning. Most of those were children four years old or younger,” he said.
Sheehy, in a video uploaded to social media, argued hemp-derived products have “provided in many cases a natural and healthy way” for people suffering from pain, such as military veterans, to find relief.
“That’s been life-changing for a lot of people. A lot of them I know personally, which is why I’ve taken up this cause,” he said.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗ · Axios ↗ · The Hill ↗
This lens runs the verified story through Cinnamon's AI — wired in the next step.
- The Senate voted early Saturday morning to fund the federal government until Dec.
- 11 with the aim of averting another government shutdown before the midterm election, sending the…