House passes bill raising debt ceiling and averting shutdown

The bill passed in a party-line vote of 220-211

The House of Representatives voted Tuesday night to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government through Dec. 3 and raise the $28 trillion debt ceiling.

H.R. 5305, which passed in a party-line vote of 220-211, will need the support of at least 10 Republicans to pass in the Senate.

Citing opposition to President Joe Biden's agenda, nearly every Republican in the Senate has expressed opposition to tying the debt ceiling into the bill that funds the government. The federal government faces a looming shutdown on Oct. 1 if Congress cannot reach a consensus by the Sept. 30 deadline.

The government is also slated to hit the debt ceiling by mid-October, which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed could lead to "economic catastrophe."

WHAT IS THE DEBT CEILING?

"The bill that Speaker Pelosi is bringing through this week will not become law," said House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La. "They're going to have to go back to the drawing board."

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., is the only Republican who has said he would "vote yes happily" for the bill, which includes $28.6 billion in natural disaster relief funds for states such as Louisiana, which was recently ravaged by Hurricane Ida.

DEMOCRATS STRIP $1B FOR ISRAEL'S IRON DOME FROM GOVERNMENT FUNDING BILL

The bill also stoked controversy Tuesday when House Democratic leaders stripped $1 billion from it that would fund Israel's Iron Dome after a group of left-wing Democrats threatened to vote against the bill. 

House Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said he intended to bring a suspension bill to the floor by the end of the week to fully fund the Iron Dome.

House Rules Chairman James McGovern, D-Mass., also said the $1 billion in funding will be attached to the annual defense funding bill later this year.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Before passage, House Democrats defeated a resolution that would have put the Iron Dome funding back into the bill by a vote of 209-215.