House PASSES bill to avoid a shutdown: Democrats help Republican Speaker Mike Johnson keep funding the government in his first big test just four days before the deadline

The House passed a stopgap spending bill to keep the government funded through the holidays until next year handing new Speaker Mike Johnson a big win amid Republican chaos.

The so-called 'laddered' continuing resolution, or CR, did not include any spending cuts or any supplemental funding for Israel or Ukraine. It will now go to the Senate where it is likely to pass before the government runs out of funding on Friday. 

Funding for four non-controversial agencies and projects including military construction and veterans' affairs will be extended through January 19 and funding for eight others would run through February 2. 

More Democrats voted for the measure than Republicans: 209 to 127. 

It was Johnson's first major test as speaker, and although right-wing Republicans voted against the plan, they held off on floating the idea of ousting him from office in the same manner that eight moved to expel Kevin McCarthy last month. As a result, Johnson was forced to rely on the support of Democrats to get the bill across the finish line.

The bill's passage came during a dramatic day on Capitol Hill. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was accused of elbowing a colleague who voted to oust him from the speakership, which he has denied. 

'If I hit somebody, they would know it. If I kidney punched someone, they would be on the ground,' McCarthy told reporters after the incident with Rep. Tim Burchett. 

Rep. James Comer got in a heated tiff with Democratic Rep. Jared Jared Moskowitz, calling him a 'smurf' and a 'liar' after he accused him of misleading the American people during the ongoing investigation into President Biden. 

In the Senate, Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin stood up and challenged a teamster boss to a fight during a separate hearing.

'This place is like a pressure cooker,' Johnson said earlier Tuesday, after the House has been in session for 10 weeks. 

'This will allow everybody to go home for a couple of days for Thanksgiving, everybody to cool off,' Johnson told reporters of the laddered CR. 

Prior to the vote, House Democratic leadership put out a statement saying that they worked with Republicans to find 'common ground' on the bill and would support it. 

The key reason for Democrats getting onboard was that the CR remains set at fiscal year 2023 spending levels.

The measure passed under 'suspension,' meaning there was no rule vote but two-thirds of the House had to vote for it to get through. 

The bill also does not include an extension of FISA 702 authorities, which authorizes the FBI to wiretap foreign nationals without a warrant - but has been criticized for sweeping up American citizens. It does extend provisions of the Farm Bill through September 2024. 

It pushes the funding deadline past Christmas after Speaker Mike Johnson insisted he did not want the House to be 'jammed' before the holidays and forced to agree to a year-long spending plan worked up by the Senate.  

The nearly 50-member House Freedom Caucus came out against the bill before it was put on the floor, arguing it needs spending cuts. 

'While we remain committed to working with Speaker Johnson, we need bold change,' the caucus said in a statement. 

Conservative Republicans insist Congress must work through 12 single-subject appropriations bills to fund each agency of government rather than a CR or an omnibus that lumps funding for all agencies of Congress together.

The so-called 'laddered' approach is meant to force negotiations on individual appropriations bills. The House would have two months to work through the first four before their funding ran out and an extra two weeks beyond that to work through the last eight.  

But months into the process Republicans so far have passed five of 12 party-line appropriations bills and still have yet to conference those bills with the Democratic-led Senate.   

'So I think everybody can go home. We can come back reset, we're gonna get our plan together,' Johnson said before the vote. 

'We're gonna map out that plan to fight with those principles and we have some great plans and playbook already.'