(CNN) — Congress passed a short-term funding extension Thursday, averting a partial government shutdown at the end of the week after lawmakers raced the clock ahead of a key Friday deadline.

The bill will now be sent to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. The Senate voted first to pass the measure by a tally of 77 to 18. The House passed the bill later in the day, 314 to 108.

But major challenges still lay ahead. Lawmakers must now attempt to pass a series of full-year spending bills before new March deadlines – a painstaking process with a wide array of potential landmines as the two parties fight for competing policy priorities.

In a rare event, lawmakers had been confronting not one but two government shutdown deadlines early this year – on January 19 and February 2.

The short-term funding extension sets up two new funding deadlines on March 1 and March 8. The stopgap measure will provide more time for full-year appropriations bills to be negotiated and passed.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, who presides over an extremely narrow majority, has faced intense pushback from his right flank amid the government spending fight.

Johnson has been criticized by conservatives over a topline spending deal he struck with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, which would set spending at close to $1.66 trillion overall. Conservatives were also quick to criticize the proposal for a short-term funding extension after it was announced.

“This is what surrender looks like,” the far-right House Freedom Caucus posted on X.

Johnson has defended the topline agreement and said in a statement Sunday that the short-term spending bill “is required to complete what House Republicans are working hard to achieve: an end to governance by omnibus, meaningful policy wins, and better stewardship of American tax dollars.”

In addition to the effort to avert a shutdown, a group of Senate negotiators have been working to try to strike a deal on border security that could unlock passage of aid to Ukraine and Israel.

Top congressional leaders emerged from a Wednesday meeting with Biden at the White House hopeful that a deal on a national security supplemental aid package can be reached.

If a deal is reached in the Senate, however, its fate in the House will be uncertain. A number of House Republicans have warned that they don’t believe a Senate compromise on border security would be adequate to address the issues at the border and would be ready to reject such a measure.

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(CNN) — Congressional leaders have come to an agreement on a two-tranche short-term funding bill to keep the government funded into March, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

The new continuing resolution will fund the government through March 1 and March 8. The agreement comes just before the first funding deadline of January 19. The second government funding deadline was February 2.

House Republicans will have a conference call Sunday night to discuss the continuing resolution, the source told CNN. And the text of the resolution is expected to be posted Sunday evening, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.

Schumer and House Speaker Mike Johnson announced last weekend that they had reached an agreement on topline spending numbers, the first step in the process to fund the federal government.

Those numbers include $1.59 trillion for fiscal year 2024, with $886 billion for defense spending and $704 billion in non-defense spending. Schumer and Johnson also agreed to a $69 billion side deal in adjustments that will go toward non-defense domestic spending.

But far-right members of the House GOP conference slammed the deal and some have pushed to include border policy changes in exchange for not shutting down the government. The blowback highlights the challenge for Johnson, who is leading an extremely narrow majority.

Johnson said Friday the deal remains in place after he appeared to be at least entertaining the idea of abandoning it in meetings with conservatives.

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(CNN) — The House Ethics Committee announced on Wednesday that it is opening an inquiry into Florida Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick to look into allegations of potential campaign finance violations and other issues.

The committee said in a statement that an investigative subcommittee will have jurisdiction to determine whether Cherfilus-McCormick violated any laws or the code of official conduct “with respect to allegations that she may have violated campaign finance laws and regulations in connection with her 2022 special election and/or 2022 re-election campaigns; failed to properly disclose required information on statements required to be filed with the House; and/or accepted voluntary services for official work from an individual not employed in her congressional office.”

Cherfilus-McCormick’s office said in a statement to CNN, “As the Ethics Committee said in its statement, the mere fact of establishing an investigative subcommittee does not itself indicate that any violation occurred. Regardless, the Congresswoman takes these matters seriously and is working to resolve them.”

The vote to establish the investigative subcommittee was unanimous by the committee. New York GOP Rep. Andrew Garbarino will serve as chair of the four-member investigative subcommittee.

The committee noted that the creation of the investigative panel came after a referral from the Office of Congressional Ethics.

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(CNN) — Rep. Jim Jordan won the support of several key skeptics in the Republican conference Monday, bolstering momentum for his bid for speaker ahead of a planned floor vote on Tuesday.

House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers and House Appropriations Defense subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert – two key defense hawks, the GOP bloc perhaps most weary of Jordan – announced Monday morning they would back Jordan on the House floor. And Rep. Ann Wagner of Missouri, who called Jordan a “non-starter” for speaker last week, said Monday that she would support the Ohio Republican, too – as did Rep. Vern Buchanan of Florida, another previous holdout.

“Jim Jordan and I spoke at length again this morning, and he has allayed my concerns about keeping the government open with conservative funding, the need for strong border security, our need for consistent international support in times of war and unrest, as well as the need for stronger protections against the scourge of human trafficking and child exploitation,” Wagner said in a statement. “Jim Jordan is our conference nominee, and I will support his nomination for Speaker on the House floor.”

Even with the additional support, Jordan still faces an uphill climb to be elected speaker. On the floor, he can afford to lose only four Republicans if every member votes, because a speaker needs a majority of the full House to be elected.

Jordan told CNN he will go to the floor for a speaker vote at noon ET Tuesday, whether or not he has the votes locked up. “I think the only way to do this, the way the Founders intended, is you … have to vote tomorrow,” Jordan said. “We set it for 12 p.m. ET. I feel good about it.”

Asked if he would go to a second ballot, Jordan said: “We are going to elect a speaker tomorrow.”

If Jordan is able to secure the votes to become speaker Tuesday, it would put an end to a chaotic and unprecedented two weeks in the House following McCarthy’s ouster. Without a speaker, the House is unable to pass legislation despite the international crises and a government shutdown one month away, though some members have explored empowering interim Speaker Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican who was appointed to the position following Kevin McCarthy’s ousting.

But if Jordan is unable to corral enough support to win a floor vote, Republicans would be back at square one, leaving the House in a speakerless paralysis.

Last week, 55 Republicans voted inside the GOP conference against committing to supporting Jordan on the floor. The Ohio Republican then sent the conference home for the weekend, saying he planned to speak to the members one-by-one.

GOP activists, meanwhile, went on the attack against those opposing Jordan, arguing that doing so would empower House Democrats.

Jordan and allies look to flip holdouts

On Sunday, a senior Republican House member told CNN he believes there are still roughly 40 “no” votes, noting he’d spoken to 20 members willing to block Jordan’s path to the floor in a potential roll-call vote Tuesday. But another GOP source familiar with the matter said Jordan has had positive conversations with members, and believes by Tuesday evening he will be elected speaker.

As a series of one-time Jordan holdouts announced Monday they were now backing Jordan, an ally helping whip votes told CNN Jordan believes he is within “striking distance” of having the votes to secure the gavel.

Rep. Chip Roy of Texas predicted there were fewer than 10 holdouts that remained on Monday. “We are somewhere south of 10 who are still being recalcitrant,” Roy said on the Erick Erickson Radio Show Monday morning.

Jordan allies say they believe they can get the no votes down to the teens by Tuesday, although a source cautioned it’s hard to know for sure until the voting begins. If Jordan has around 20 or fewer holdouts, the thinking is – like McCarthy – he can grind it out on the floor.

It’s one thing, allies say, to be opposed to Jordan on a secret ballot in a closed-door meeting. It’s another thing to vote against him on the floor.

McCarthy on Monday told CNN, “yes,” he believes Jordan will be able to pull it off on the floor Tuesday, when asked about Jordan’s chances on his way into the speaker’s office.

The strategy comes as there is still serious work to do. Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska told CNN he spoke to Jordan on Sunday and told him he still would not support him. Among the reasons he listed: Jordan’s vote against a short-term spending bill, as well as out of principle that a handful of members have been controlling every move of the conference for months.

“I am not trying to be an a-hole to Jim,” said Bacon, adding that he is not necessarily a “hard no.”

Bacon also told Jordan he wouldn’t be a thorn in his side if he’s ultimately elected, saying he doesn’t intend to act like Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida did toward McCarthy.

Other members say they are still weighing their options, but another holdout warned that if Jordan allies intend to try and bully members into being a “yes,” they ought to think twice and warned it could backfire.

Another senior GOP aide told CNN that some moves deployed over the weekend had rubbed members the wrong way. The source shared an email from a Fox News producer for Sean Hannity that asked them to answer a series of questions about their boss’ position on Jordan.

The Hannity producer asked if it was true their boss opposed Jordan, and then wrote, “If true, Hannity would like to know why during a war breaking out between Israel and Hamas, with the war in Ukraine, with the wide-open borders, with a budget that’s unfinished why would Rep. [X} be against Rep. Jim Jordan for speaker?”

“Please let us know when Rep. [X] plans on opening the People’s House so work can be done,” the producer wrote.

The email, which CNN reviewed from a source, was first reported by Axios.

Hannity, the Fox host, has been publicly advocating for Jordan, telling his supporters to “call your member and tell them” to support the Ohio Republican.

Jordan urges GOP conference to unify

Jordan sent GOP lawmakers a “dear colleague” letter on Monday urging the conference to come together.

“The country and our conference cannot afford us attacking each other right now,” he wrote. “It is time we unite to get back to work on behalf of the American people.”

Republicans are expected to meet again behind closed doors Monday evening ahead of Tuesday’s vote.

If Jordan wins the vote, his election as speaker would come after his own supporters blocked Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s path to the speaker’s gavel. While Jordan said he would support Scalise, more than a dozen of his supporters refused to support the House majority leader after Scalise defeated Jordan in a conference vote last week, 113 to 99.

Scalise dropped out in the face of the entrenched opposition, giving Jordan the opportunity to get the conference behind him.

Now Jordan is making the pitch to his skeptics to do what the Ohio Republican’s backers would not, urging the conference to coalesce around him, even after more than 50 Republicans said they were opposed. The statements from Rogers and Wagner noted they were supporting the nominee chosen by the conference.

“Since I was first elected to the House, I have always been a team player and supported what the majority of the Republican Conference agrees to,” Rogers wrote on X. The Alabama Republican said that he had “two cordial, thoughtful, and productive conversations over the past two days” with Jordan about passing legislation, including the annual defense authorization bill and the farm bill.

There are still signs that Jordan doesn’t have the entire conference on board. GOP Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas demurred when asked by CNN’s Kate Bolduan if he would vote for Jordan on the floor.

“You will know how I vote when I vote, but I have serious issues about where we stand right now as a conference,” he said.

Womack also expressed frustration with his conference and many of Jordan’s supporters. “The goalposts just continue to move,” he said. “The people that are promoting Jim Jordan, for the most part, are the people who presided over the ouster of Kevin McCarthy, so it is kind of interesting to see all the bedfellows here.”

Senate returns to tackle Israel legislation

Last week, the Senate was in recess while House Republicans tried to elect a speaker. But the upper chamber will be back Monday and plans to quickly consider an aid package to Israel – allowing Senate Democrats to paint a stark contrast between the two chambers if the speaker fight drags on.

“We’re not waiting for the House,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday at a news conference in Israel, where he was leading a bipartisan congressional delegation. “We believe that if the Senate works in a strong bipartisan way, it may indeed improve the chances that the House, even with its current dysfunction, will act.”

In addition to passing a new aid package for Israel, government funding runs out in roughly a month, and the White House is still pushing for Congress to approve additional aid to Ukraine – all issues that a new speaker will need to navigate.

As the speaker fight has dragged on, lawmakers have looked at alternative ways to get the House moving. There’s been discussion as to whether McHenry could be given expanded powers, though it’s not clear there would be support in the chamber to do so.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday there have been “informal conversations” about a bipartisan governing coalition, though he did not say whether there was a candidate on the Republican side who could garner Democratic votes.

“There are informal conversations that have been underway. When we get back to Washington tomorrow, it’s important to begin to formalize those discussions,” Jeffries said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” Sunday that the “manufactured divisions” inside the conference make it hard for any candidate to get the necessary votes.

“Nothing’s impossible,” Crenshaw said of Jordan’s chances. “But it’s going to be really, really difficult, based on what I’m hearing.”

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(CNN) — Kevin McCarthy has for now lost the House speaker’s gavel in an historic moment on the heels of a showdown on Capitol Hill over government funding.

The California Republican, who was up against major challenges, including tough vote math and a conservative revolt against his speakership, was ousted in a 216-210 vote, with eight Republicans voting to remove McCarthy from the post.

House Republicans control only a narrow majority, a dynamic that has left McCarthy with little room to maneuver and has given hardline conservatives outsized influence to exert pressure over the speaker.

To win over critics and secure the speaker’s gavel in January, McCarthy and his allies made a series of concessions to conservatives. One major concession was to restore the ability of any one member to offer what’s known as a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair – a move that can trigger a House floor vote to oust the speaker.

Tuesday’s vote for McCarthy’s ouster came after firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, offered a motion to vacate the chair on the House floor. Here’s what that means:

What is a motion to vacate?

In practical terms, a motion to vacate the chair takes the form of a resolution to remove the speaker by declaring the speakership to be vacant. It is a rarely used procedural tool – and no other House speaker has ever been ousted through the passage of a resolution to remove them. But threats over its use can be a powerful way to apply pressure to a speaker.

How does an effort to oust the speaker unfold?

Any member can file a House resolution to remove the speaker, as Gaetz did.

According to House precedent, a resolution to remove the speaker would be considered privileged, a designation that gives it priority over other issues. But simply filing the resolution does not force a vote on its own, though it would be sure to ignite a political firestorm and a debate over the speaker’s future.

To force a vote, a member would need to come to the House floor and announce their intent to offer the resolution to remove the speaker. Doing that would then require the speaker to put the resolution on the legislative schedule within two legislative days – setting up a showdown on the floor over the issue.

If a member introduces a resolution, but does not announce it from the floor, that would not force a vote or have any immediate impact – making it more of a symbolic threat or warning shot to the speaker.

How many votes are needed?

A vote on the resolution to remove the speaker would require a majority vote to succeed and oust the speaker from their leadership post.

A vote on a resolution to remove the speaker could still be preempted, however, even once it is on track to come to the floor for consideration.

For example, when the resolution is called up on the floor, a motion to table – or kill – the resolution could be offered and would be voted on first. That vote would also only require a simple majority to succeed – and if it did succeed then there would not be a vote directly on the resolution to remove the speaker because the resolution would instead be tabled.

What happens when it succeeds?

According to the reference guide “House Practice: A Guide to the Rules, Precedents and Procedures of the House,” the speaker is required to submit a confidential list to the Clerk of people “in the order in which each shall act as Speaker pro tempore in the case of a vacancy.”

With McCarthy removed as House speaker, for now, the clerk pulls out that list, and the number one name on that list becomes the interim speaker. His or her first order of business: The election of a new speaker – and once again, the House will have to vote as many times as it takes to get someone to 218 votes, or a majority of those present and voting for a speaker.

GOP Rep. Patrick McHenry, a top McCarthy ally, was named interim speaker.

Has this happened before?

The last time a high-profile showdown played out on Capitol Hill over a motion to vacate was in 2015 when then-GOP Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina filed a resolution to declare the office of speaker vacant while John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, was serving as speaker. It was not brought to a floor vote, however.

Not long after the resolution was filed, Boehner downplayed its significance, calling it “no big deal.” But a few months later, he announced that he had decided to resign, saying that he had planned to step down at the end of the year but that turmoil within his caucus prompted him to resign earlier than planned.

Another notable incident took place in 1910, when then-House Speaker Joseph Cannon, an Illinois Republican, held onto the speakership after a resolution to remove the speaker came to a vote on the House floor and failed – 155 to 192.

There are a number of factors that make removing a speaker challenging.

“It’s probably harder to remove a speaker using a privileged resolution than people think,” said Matthew Green, a professor of politics at Catholic University in Washington, DC, and author of the book “The Speaker of the House: A Study of Leadership.”

“It requires a pivotal bloc of members of the majority willing to withstand criticism and peer pressure from their partisan colleagues for introducing the resolution, bipartisan agreement that the incumbent speaker should be ousted, and a majority willing to select someone else to replace the speaker.”

“It remains a potent threat as long as people believe it is a viable tool to remove a speaker. If it is actually brought to the floor and fails, it will lose its potency,” Green said.

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(CNN) — Rep. Matt Gaetz on Monday moved ahead in his attempt to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy from the top House leadership post, offering a motion to vacate the chair on the House floor – a rare procedural move that can be used to force a vote to remove the speaker.

It’s not yet clear how the challenge to McCarthy will play out, but the effort represents the most serious threat to his speakership to date. A floor vote to oust McCarthy would require a majority to succeed.

The move marks a major escalation in tensions for a House GOP conference that has been mired in in-fighting and could be thrown into chaos if McCarthy is pushed out of the speakership. It comes as a bloc of House conservatives have continued to thwart McCarthy, voting against key priorities of GOP leadership and repeatedly throwing up roadblocks to the speaker’s agenda.

No House speaker has ever been ousted through the passage of a resolution to remove them, but threats over the use of what’s known as a “motion to vacate” can be a powerful way to apply pressure to a speaker.

Gaetz, a Florida Republican and frequent critic of McCarthy, had been pushing to oust the speaker by using the congressional mechanism to vacate the chair, which allows any one member the ability to call for a new speaker election, though GOP leadership has a few options to stop or stall such an effort.

According to House precedent, a resolution to remove the speaker would be considered privileged, a designation that gives it priority over other issues.

To force a vote, a member must go to the House floor and announce their intent to offer the resolution to remove the speaker – as Gaetz did. Doing so requires the speaker to put the resolution on the legislative schedule within two legislative days, setting up a showdown on the floor over the issue.

A vote on a resolution to remove the speaker could still be preempted, however, even once it is on track to come to the floor for consideration.

For example, when the resolution is called up on the floor, a motion to table – or kill – the resolution could be offered and would be voted on first. That vote would also only require a simple majority to succeed – and if it did succeed then there would not be a vote directly on the resolution to remove the speaker because the resolution would instead be tabled.

The last time a high-profile showdown played out on Capitol Hill over a motion to vacate was in 2015 when then-GOP Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina filed a resolution to declare the office of speaker vacant while John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, was serving as speaker. It was not brought to a floor vote, however.

Not long after the resolution was filed, Boehner downplayed its significance, calling it “no big deal.” But a few months later, he announced that he had decided to resign, saying that he had planned to step down at the end of the year but that turmoil within his conference prompted him to resign earlier than planned.

McCarthy may need Democratic support

McCarthy is at risk of losing five or more Republicans on an expected motion to vacate the speaker’s chair, more defections than he can afford to lose – meaning he is certain to need Democratic votes to survive, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Gaetz and Reps. Eli Crane and Bob Good have all said they will vote yes on the motion, while Rep. Andy Biggs tells CNN he’s “favorably disposed” to vote for it and Rep. Tim Burchett says his “conscience” is telling him to “vote him out” but he’s still torn.

Earlier Monday, McCarthy refused to rule out cutting a deal with Democrats in order to survive Gaetz’s push.

“I think this is about the institution. I think it’s too important,” he told CNN. The speaker added that he has not yet spoken with Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries about how Democrats would handle the motion to vacate.

Following his floor remarks, Gaetz said on the steps of the Capitol that he was “going to be doing it this week” when asked by reporters about when he would bring a motion to vacate to the floor.

Gaetz told CNN he spoke to former President Donald Trump about ousting McCarthy but wouldn’t disclose any details about the conversation, saying he would “keep that between the two of us.”

Democratic cooperation, Ukraine aid threaten McCarthy’s leadership

Conservatives had threatened to oust McCarthy over relying on Democratic votes, as he did Saturday to advance legislation staving off a government shutdown. Gaetz also cited the possibility of the House holding votes on sending aid to Ukraine as another reason to oust him.

“Members of the Republican Party might vote differently on a motion to vacate if they heard what the speaker had to share with us about his secret side deal with Joe Biden on Ukraine. I’ll be listening,” he said in closing. “Stay tuned.”

In Sunday remarks responding to the thwarted government shutdown, President Joe Biden called on McCarthy and other Republican leaders to follow through on a commitment to hold a standalone vote on funding for Ukraine as it attempts to fight off Russia’s invasion.

“I hope my friends on the other side keep their word about support for Ukraine. They said they’re going to support Ukraine in a separate vote,” Biden said. “We cannot, under any circumstance, allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted.”

When a reporter asked whether Biden on Sunday would trust McCarthy when the “next deal comes around,” Biden responded, “We just made one about Ukraine. So, we’ll find out.”

McCarthy denied he had made any side deals on promising to put Ukraine funding on the floor, adding that all he did was tell Democrats that if there was a technical issue with the legislation to continue government funding that dealt with transferring existing funds, it could be fixed.

“There is no side deal, so I don’t know who is bringing that up,” McCarthy told reporters in the Capitol. “There is no side deal on Ukraine.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeatedly would not specify any details beyond what Biden said publicly over the weekend.

“There’s obviously bipartisan support to continue the funding to Ukraine,” she said when asked whether Biden was referring to any specific agreement from McCarthy to take up new Ukraine funding.

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(CNN) — Speaker Kevin McCarthy sent his House members home for the week without a clear plan to avoid a looming government shutdown after hardliners in the Republican conference once again scuttled his spending plans, delivering an embarrassing floor defeat for GOP leadership for the second time this week.

The Republican leader slammed his far-right flank for wanting to “burn the place down,” after conservatives dramatically bucked McCarthy and GOP leadership on a procedural vote over a Pentagon funding bill, throwing the House into total paralysis. And now, members are not set to return to session until Tuesday as the possibility of a shutdown at the end of next week appears ever more likely.

“It’s frustrating in the sense that I don’t understand why anybody votes against bringing the idea and having the debate,” McCarthy told reporters.

Thursday’s failed vote marked yet another blow to McCarthy, who is under pressure and has faced threats of an ouster. The defense funding bill that was derailed typically garners widespread bipartisan support, a sign of how even usually uncontroversial issues have become mired down in Republican infighting.

Days of negotiations have yielded a few apparent breakthroughs, but the speaker’s Republican opponents have been quick to throw cold water on progress and openly defy his calls for unity. McCarthy’s thin margin in the chamber means that in most votes he can only lose four members without any support from Democrats – and absences can raise and lower the majority threshold.

House Republicans had originally planned to be in session over the weekend to pass a stop-gap government funding bill. But that strategy is now on ice amid infighting within the House GOP conference, and House Republican leaders are sending members home for the week amid deep divisions, according to multiple GOP sources.

The new plan, according to multiple lawmakers and aides, is for Republicans to try to complete work on individual, long-term spending bills, since their short-term funding bill did not have the necessary GOP votes amid hardliner opposition.

But there is little chance that work could be finished before next week’s funding expiration deadline. In addition, those bills would be dead on arrival in the Senate, making that not a viable plan to avert a shutdown.

While votes are no longer expected over the weekend, some House lawmakers will remain in Washington to continue discussions over next steps.

Late Wednesday evening, McCarthy briefed his conference behind closed doors on a new potential plan to keep the government open – paired with deeper spending cuts and new border security measures – in an attempt to win over wary members on his right flank.

The plan, as outlined by the speaker, would keep the government open for 30 days at a $1.47 trillion spending level, a commission to address the debt and a border security package. Separately, they also agreed to move year-long funding bills at a $1.53 trillion level. That level is below the bipartisan agreement that the speaker reached with the White House to raise the national debt limit.

It’s not clear whether Republicans would actually be able to unify around the plan – but even if they did, it would be on arrival in the Senate, making it not viable as an option to actually prevent a shutdown.

On Thursday, six Republicans total ended up voting against the rule. Reps. Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Matt Rosendale of Montana, Eli Crane of Arizona and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia voted against the bill. House Rules Committee Chairman Tom Cole of Oklahoma also eventually changed his vote, casting his vote against the rule so he could bring it back up for reconsideration.

It remains unclear exactly what course of action Congress will take next week as it rapidly approaches the shutdown deadline.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, however, took a procedural step on Thursday that would allow the Senate to vote on a short term government funding bill next week.

“As I have said for months, we must work in a bipartisan fashion to keep our government open, avoid a shutdown and avoid inflicting unnecessary pain on the American people. This action will give the Senate the option to do just that,” he said.

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(CNN) — The House voted Thursday to pass a rule sending a resolution offered by Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado to committee, effectively pausing a move to bring a privileged motion to the floor that would have forced members to vote on whether to impeach President Joe Biden.

The rule was passed along party lines.

Boebert’s resolution had divided House Republicans, with many members expressing frustration with the conservative congresswoman’s push to force a vote on the politically contentious issue. Speaker Kevin McCarthy urged his GOP conference to vote against the resolution.

Boebert said said she pushed the vote in order to force her colleagues “to make tough decisions.”

“I am a sophomore congresswoman, and I have learned very early that nothing happens in this town without force,” Boebert said.

At a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, McCarthy argued that Republicans should let committee investigations play out and warning that jumping to impeachment now could threaten their slim majority, multiple sources in the meeting told CNN.

“I think to prematurely bring something up like that, to have no background in it, it undercuts what we’re doing” at the committee level, McCarthy later told reporters.

A number of House Republicans have filed articles of impeachment against Biden since the party took the House majority, but Boebert made a specific procedural move on Tuesday that would force the chamber to vote on the impeachment of Biden this week.Some House Republicans have raised concerns about their right-wing colleagues using procedural methods to bypass the committee process and force votes on the floor, particularly after they had harped on Congress returning to regular order as part of their demands in exchange for electing McCarthy as speaker earlier this year.

House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green said that the committee will make Biden a focus of their investigation into the southern border, after the House approved the rule referring an impeachment resolution to his panel.

“There’s not going to be that much of a change other than we’ll dig into the actual actions of the president in conjunction with what’s happened,” Green said.

Green declined to say whether or not he believes Biden’s actions on the border meet the threshold of high crimes and misdemeanors for impeachment, but he said that would be part of what they investigate.

The committee has already begun an investigation into the administration’s handling of the border as Republicans have called for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to be impeached over the matter. Green suggested that Biden’s actions will be added to that probe.

Boebert threatened to force a vote on impeaching Biden if she believes the committee isn’t conducting its investigation quickly.

“If I don’t see accountability taking place with Joe Biden in a timely manner – and no, I don’t have a date, deadline – but if I see that this has been slow rolled and nothing is moving on it, then there’s always the option to bring up another privileged resolution and call to impeach Joe Biden,” she said.

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(CNN) — The Senate passed a bill late Thursday evening to suspend the nation’s debt limit through January 1, 2025, averting a first-ever US default just days ahead of the deadline.

The House earlier this week already passed the measure, which can now be sent to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. Biden, just moments after the Senate passed the debt limit bill, praised Congress for its efforts and said in a statement, “I look forward to signing this bill into law as soon as possible.” The president will deliver an address to the nation on Friday on averting default.

Suspending the debt limit through 2025 takes the threat of default off table until after the presidential election. In addition to addressing the debt limit, the bill caps non-defense spending, expands work requirements for some food stamp recipients and claws back some Covid-19 relief funds, among other policy provisions. The Senate voted 63 to 36 to pass the bill.

The timeframe to pass the bill through Congress was extremely tight with little room for error, putting enormous pressure on leadership in both parties as the threat of default loomed.

To get the bill over the finish line, lawmakers raced the clock to prevent a default ahead of June 5, the date the Treasury Department warned it will no longer be able to pay all of the nation’s obligations in full and on time – a scenario that could trigger global economic catastrophe.

The bipartisan debt limit deal was struck between the White House and House Republicans – the culmination of long days and late nights of contentious negotiations that at times looked like they might break down and fall apart entirely.

The debt limit bill faced backlash from both the far left and the far right, but ultimately won support from a significant number of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer touted Democrats’ role in the debt ceiling agreement after the Senate passed the bill.

“We may be a little tired, but we did it,” Schumer said. “So we’re very, very happy. Default was the giant sword hanging over America’s head, but because of the good work of President Biden, as well as Democrats in the House and Democrats in the Senate, we are not defaulting.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a statement on the passage of the debt ceiling agreement, saying that “an important step toward fiscal sanity will finally become law.”

The measure passed the House by a wide margin – 314 to 117 – on Wednesday.

More details of what’s in the bill

In addition to addressing the debt limit, the bill includes a wide range of provisions.

The legislation will rescind roughly $28 billion in unobligated funds from the Covid-19 relief packages that Congress passed to respond to the pandemic, according to the House GOP.

It will retain $5 billion in funding to accelerate the development of Covid-19 vaccines and treatments, and funding for vaccines and treatments for the uninsured, according to a White House source.

The package will also tighten the current work requirements in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, primarily by adjusting the work participation rate credits that states can receive for reducing their caseloads.

Work requirements will not be introduced in Medicaid, which House Republicans had called for in their debt ceiling bill.

Under the package, borrowers will have to begin paying back their student loans at the end of the summer, as the Biden administration has already announced, according to a source familiar. The pause has been in effect since the Covid-19 pandemic began.

The package also includes new measures in the National Environmental Policy Act aimed at boosting the coordination, predictability and certainty associated with federal agency decision making, according to the White House source.

It will designate a single lead agency, charged with developing a single environmental review document, and also will require agencies to complete environmental reviews in one year, or two years for the most environmentally complex projects.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

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(CNN) — The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to pass a bill to suspend the nation’s debt limit through January 1, 2025, as lawmakers race to prevent a catastrophic default.

The bill will next need to be passed by the Senate before it can be sent to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. In the Senate, any one lawmaker can delay a swift vote and it is not yet clear when a final vote will take place.

The timeframe to pass the bill through Congress is extremely tight and there is little room for error, putting enormous pressure on leadership in both parties.

Lawmakers are racing the clock to avert a first-ever default ahead of June 5, the date the Treasury Department has said it will no longer be able to pay all of the nation’s obligations in full and on time, a scenario that could trigger global economic catastrophe.

The debt limit bill faced backlash from the far right and the far left, but in the end it passed the House by a wide margin with significant bipartisan support.

The final tally for the vote was 314 to 117. There were 149 Republicans and 165 Democrats who voted for the bill and 71 Republicans and 46 Democrats who voted against it.

Suspending the debt limit through 2025 takes the threat of default off table until after the presidential election. In addition to addressing the debt limit, the bill caps non-defense spending, expands work requirements for some food stamp recipients and claws back some Covid-19 relief funds, among other policy provisions.

The bipartisan debt limit deal struck between the White House and House Republicans was announced over the weekend – the culmination of long days and late nights of contentious negotiations that at times looked like they might breakdown and fall apart entirely. The effort to secure a debt limit deal has proven to be a major leadership test for both House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Biden.

“I have been clear that the only path forward is a bipartisan compromise that can earn the support of both parties,” Biden said, praising the House vote in a statement moments after the bill’s passage. “This agreement meets that test. I urge the Senate to pass it as quickly as possible so that I can sign it into law, and our country can continue building the strongest economy in the world.”

McCarthy took a victory lap after the House passed the deal, saying: “I have been thinking about this day since before my vote for speaker because I knew the debt ceiling was coming. I wanted to make history.”

The speaker and his top allies expressed confidence ahead of the vote that the deal would pass in the House. “I am confident we will pass the bill,” McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday.

Earlier Wednesday, the chamber cleared a key hurdle to advance to a final vote when it approved a rule governing floor debate for the debt limit bill. Rules are typically supported by just the majority party and opposed by the minority. But in this case, 52 Democrats voted “yes” to get the rule across the finish line after 29 Republicans voted against it.

Democratic leaders instructed their members to let Republicans put up their votes for the rule first, a source familiar told CNN. The strategy: let Republicans sweat and show how many defections GOP leaders had. The defections exposed deep divisions within the House Republican conference.

Passage of the rule cleared the way for the final House vote on the bill later in the day.

The Congressional Budget Office told McCarthy in a letter Tuesday night that the bill would reduce budget deficits by $1.5 trillion over the next ten years. The letter says that if the bill is enacted, “mandatory spending would, on net, decrease by $10 billion, and revenues would, on net, decrease by $2 billion over the 2023–2033 period,” the agency wrote. “As a consequence, interest on the public debt would decline by $188 billion.” Discretionary spending would be reduced by a projected $1.3 trillion over the 2024-2033 period.

But in a troubling sign for McCarthy, the CBO also warned that changes to the work requirement provisions in the food stamps program “would increase federal spending by about $2.1 billion over the 2023-2033 period.” The bill would increase the upper age limit of the existing work requirement through age 54, but veterans, homeless Americans and former foster youth of all ages would be exempt. Combined, these provisions would increase the number of people receiving benefits by about 78,000 people in an average month during the 2025 to 2030 period, when they were fully in effect, according to the agency.

This headline and story have been updated with additional developments.

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