Earlier on Thursday, RedState wrote about the tentative agreement among House and Senate leaders of both the Republicans and the Democrats on a series of continuing resolution (CR) votes, the first of which pushes the negotiations back by a week, before the so-called government shutdown deadline on Friday. House Speaker Mike Johnson scheduled a vote for his conference on Thursday, too:
Now, the House of Representatives has approved the CR in a bipartisan vote, although "slightly more than half" of Republicans supported it..
Via the Hill:
The legislation — which cleared the chamber in a 320-99 vote — kicks the two government funding deadlines to March 8 and March 22, buying lawmakers more time to hash out their differences on spending bills and push them over the finish line.[...]
Only 113 Republicans voted for the bill, compared to 207 Democrats, though slightly more than half the GOP conference voted in favor. Only two Democrats — Reps. Jake Auchincloss (Mass.) and Mike Quigley (Ill.) — voted no.
Readers may remember that it was partly because of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)'s passing a CR with Dem votes that he was ousted. Johnson did a similar thing here to overcome "conservative opposition":
To bypass the conservative opposition, Johnson brought the legislation to the floor under suspension of the rules, a fast-track process that requires two-thirds support for passage but eliminates the need to approve a procedural rule, which conservatives likely would have tanked.
But don't expect any calls from the Freedom Caucus to remove Johnson:
....Conservatives were quick to voice their opposition to the spending bill Thursday, but would not go as far as to vow retribution for the top Republican.[...]
Asked earlier in the day if Johnson should face consequences for moving the short-term spending bill, [Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas)] responded: “I’m not gonna talk about that,” adding “consequences are gonna be that people are gonna lose faith in the Republican Party.”
Then on Thursday before the vote, speaking from many, Roy added:
Here we are again, kicking the can down the road. Buy more time so we can spend more money that we don’t have.
This is a developing story. RedState will bring you further updates as they become available.