House passes bill to fund government, but it faces long odds in the Senate

(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

last updated 19 January 2018

The House on Thursday night voted 230-197 on a bill that keeps the government funded for less than a month, but it's uncertain if the measure will pass the Senate.

The bill finally got enough votes to pass after House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) made concessions to the far-right Freedom Caucus, including promising a vote on a conservative immigration bill. The bill would keep the government funded through Feb. 16, plus authorize six years of funding for the Children's Health Insurance Plan.

It won't be easy to pass the bill in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed and Democrats are refusing to vote for a measure that does not include a deal on DACA. Three Republican senators — Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), and Sen. Mike Rounds (S.D.) — have said they won't vote for the measure, and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is at his home, recovering from cancer treatment. Current government funding expires at midnight Friday.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.