The House will try again next week to pass a stopgap funding bill members had initially approved by voice vote Thursday, after Republicans said Democrats didn’t give them a chance to ask for a recorded vote.
The procedural snafu won’t affect the prospects of the legislation, which was already facing a White House veto threat and was basically dead on arrival in the Senate.
But it did create some drama on the House floor Thursday, just before members were about to head home for the weekend.
House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer ultimately agreed to hold a recorded vote on the bill next week, after Republicans claimed they weren’t given enough time to request one.
“They made a mistake, and if you look at the tape, nobody was asking for a vote,” Mr. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, said afterward.
Rep. G.K. Butterfield, the North Carolina Democrat who was presiding over the House, declared that the bill had passed after asking for the yeas and nays. Republicans said later they were trying to ask for a recorded vote on the measure, which is a routine request for most bills.
The measure would reopen shuttered federal agencies through February, but the White House has threatened to veto such stopgap bills, saying they fall short on border security.
Declaring that such a bill passed by voice vote could give the appearance that Republicans were breaking with President Trump in the ongoing border wall standoff.
But House Minority Whip Steve Scalise said afterward he didn’t think Democrats were trying to sneak anything by Republicans.
“For whatever reason it didn’t happen the way it should have, they made it right — we all worked together to make it right,” said Mr. Scalise, Louisiana Republican. “Ultimately Steny and I came to an agreement that we would do a unanimous consent resolution to vacate the previous vote and come back with a recorded vote when we return.”
Rep. John Carter, Texas Republican, said he wasn’t prepared to assign blame to anyone in particular.
“We were convinced we asked for the yeas and nays. The chair was convinced nobody asked,” Mr. Carter said. “It would have made basically a unanimous vote and the Republicans would be voting against the president. It was not going to be unanimous, by any way, shape or form.”
House Democrats have been passing individual spending bills and stopgap funding legislation to try to pressure Senate Republicans into passing bills to reopen the government, if only temporarily, in an effort to jump-start broader negotiations over border security.
But Republican leaders have dismissed the votes as political ploys, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has repeatedly indicated he doesn’t plan to take up spending bills if Mr. Trump won’t sign them.
The White House also threatened to veto the emergency funding bill, saying much of the money is unnecessary and duplicative.
The House on Wednesday had passed legislation that would reopen shuttered federal departments through Feb. 8 and provide $14 billion worth of emergency spending to assist victims of recent natural disasters, such as hurricanes and wildfires.
The White House has threatened to veto the stopgap bills, saying they fall short on border security funding. The White House also threatened to veto the emergency funding bill, saying much of the money is unnecessary and duplicative.
Six House Republicans voted with Democrats on the spending package the House passed Wednesday, after the number of GOP defections on earlier individual spending bills had been as high as a dozen.
Eight Democrats also broke with their party on Wednesday to vote against an amendment from Rep. James McGovern, Massachusetts Democrat, that would bar the disaster money from being used to fund President Trump’s desired U.S.-Mexico border wall.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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