Senate passes stopgap funding bill to avert shutdown before elections

The Senate voted 90-6 in an overnight session Saturday to pass a short-term funding measure that keeps federal agencies operating through December 11, sidestepping a government shutdown that would have landed in the middle of the election campaign season.

The early action is a departure from congressional habit. Lawmakers typically wait until the final days before the September 30 fiscal deadline to pass such stopgap patches. This time, senators moved nearly two months ahead of that date, a sign that the two historic shutdowns earlier this year remain fresh in memory.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune pushed to resolve the funding question before senators leave for a five-week recess to campaign. The vote was delayed by other legislative matters, but the measure ultimately carried broad bipartisan support. The House must still approve the bill when it returns from its August break, after which it will go to President Donald Trump for signature.

The legislation funds the government at current levels, with several negotiated exceptions. Democrats secured language barring any transfer of funds to the Border Patrol and blocked a $1 billion White House request for early work on a new "Trump-class" battleship announced in December. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer dismissed the ship as a vanity project, saying the president wants it "so he can slap his name on it."

The bill also delays for one month a national ban on most intoxicating hemp products. That provision drew sharp criticism from some Senate Republicans, including Senator Ted Budd of North Carolina, who cited a nearly tenfold rise in cannabis-related emergency room visits by minors in his state since 2017. "Our children should never be the testing ground for an industry willing to exploit a loophole in federal law for profit," Budd said.

Hemp industry representatives countered that the delay gives Congress time to craft legislation protecting farmers and businesses while adding safeguards for children. President Trump has spoken with Budd about the issue, though his spokesman said the president did not ask the senator to drop his effort. Budd's attempt to strip the hemp delay from the bill was rejected by the Senate.

Lawmakers also inserted language blocking, for the duration of the funding patch, new regulations that would require senior political appointees to review federal grants before award. Democrats, joined by Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, argued the rule could be used to kill grants destined for Democratic-leaning states. Senator Patty Murray said the administration's aim is to make tax dollars "work for Donald Trump." The White House Office of Management and Budget defended the proposal as an accountability measure to prevent waste. Collins noted that the vast majority of the nearly 500,000 comments on the rule were opposed, calling the response unprecedented in her Senate tenure. The dispute is expected to resurface in negotiations over a full-year spending bill.