WASHINGTON — House GOP leaders are discussing the possibility of putting a stopgap spending bill on the floor as soon as this month as a fail-safe option while they try to build support for passing fiscal 2024 appropriations bills that appear on shaky ground.
The idea, according to one person familiar with the conversations, is to have a stopgap in place to continue government funding past Sept. 30 in the event all the regular appropriations bills are not passed by the end of the fiscal year. That move would avoid a partial government shutdown in October if the Senate also passed the stopgap and President Joe Biden signed it into law.
Some Republicans view passing a stopgap ahead of time as a way to take a shutdown off the table, thereby skirting some of the pressure from Democrats to accept a catchall omnibus or other appropriations bills that have higher spending than conservatives want.
