House Republican leaders expected to bypass GOP opposition by relying heavily on Democrats to keep government open

By Annie Grayer, Manu Raju, Haley Talbot and Sarah Ferris, CNN

Washington (CNN) — House Republicans are expected to bypass mounting GOP opposition to a spending bill to keep the government running into December by using a procedural floor move that would rely heavily on Democrats to pass the legislation and avoid a government shutdown.

The House Rules Committee stripped the government spending bill from consideration Monday night, forcing House GOP leadership to tee up the spending bill under a procedure known as suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority vote to pass.

Relying on Democrats to overcome their narrow, divided majority and keep the government open has been a regular occurrence for Republicans this Congress, and was the exact maneuver that got former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy ousted from his job. Republicans have long known they’d need to rely on Democrats to pass the shutdown-averting measure this time around, but with Democratic votes now likely to vastly outnumber the GOP supporters, House Speaker Mike Johnson finds himself in a risky position with his conference.

GOP Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana told CNN, “It is disappointing. We have a Republican majority. We should be cutting spending.”

On if Johnson has mishandled the situation, Banks added, “He had an opportunity to put a spending bill on the floor that cut wasteful spending, we have had the majority for two years, we haven’t seen that happen. That was my hope with a Republican majority, but we are going to finish the Republican majority without cutting spending and that is why I am voting no.”

GOP Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, who is also against the clean government spending extension, stopped short of calling Johnson’s leadership a mistake.

“I wouldn’t say it is a mistake, I would say for me personally it is something that I can’t support.”

Frustrations are also rising toward the Republicans who refuse to vote for the bipartisan spending bills – but also oppose any GOP spending plan that would help give their side leverage in talks with Democrats.

“What’s funny is that a lot of the same people who don’t like the CRs don’t help us get the bills across either,” said GOP Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho, referencing the continuing resolution, or CR, that will keep government funded until into December.

Over the weekend, Johnson unveiled the continuing resolution to keep the government funded until December 20, Government funding is slated to run out at the end of the month, and Johnson said in a letter to GOP members that he does not want a shutdown weeks before the election.

“As history has taught and current polling affirms, shutting the government down less than 40 days from a fateful election would be an act of political malpractice,” he wrote. “From now until election day, I will continue with my tireless efforts and singular focus of growing our majority for the 119th Congress.”

Johnson’s narrow continuing resolution came after he tried and failed last week to pass a similar government funding measure that included legislation backed by former President Donald Trump targeting noncitizen voting.

CNN’s Lauren Fox contributed to this report.

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