House Races to Pass Stopgap Funding Bill, With Hemp THC Delay Dividing Republicans

Today’s Focus

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) planned to bring a short-term government funding bill to the floor Tuesday, aiming to keep federal agencies open through early December and avoid a shutdown weeks before the November midterms, The Guardian reported.

The measure returned from the Senate with changes designed to attract Democratic votes. It delays a proposed Office of Management and Budget (OMB) rule that would give political appointees greater control over how federal grants are distributed, and it bars the administration from shifting money to U.S. Border Patrol accounts, according to The Guardian’s live coverage.

A separate provision that pauses, for one month, a federal ban on intoxicating hemp-derived THC products drew objections from Republican lawmakers who wanted the ban to take effect on schedule. GOP leaders were expected to move the bill under suspension of the rules, a fast-track procedure that skips a separate procedural vote and blocks amendments, The Guardian reported.

Suspension requires a two-thirds majority, meaning Johnson needs a substantial number of Democrats to join most Republicans to send the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk. Speaking to reporters before opening the chamber, Johnson said funding the government was the priority and blamed Democrats for prior shutdown threats.

The funding vote was expected later Tuesday. In parallel developments, the Supreme Court on Monday allowed construction on Trump’s roughly $400 million White House ballroom project to continue while legal challenges proceed, PBS NewsHour reported, and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigned amid reported friction with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to The Guardian.

If the House passes the continuing resolution, the Senate-modified text would head to Trump for signature ahead of the September 30 fiscal-year deadline.

The Debate

Supporters argue

Johnson and House GOP leaders argue the bill’s central purpose is straightforward: keep the government open, pay federal workers, and prevent disruption to services and the military heading into an election season. “The first thing is we’ve got to make sure this government gets funded,” Johnson told reporters, according to The Guardian.

Senate Democrats who negotiated the amendments contend the revised text protects congressional spending authority. They point to language delaying the OMB grants rule, which they say would have let political appointees steer federal money toward favored recipients, and to the restriction on transferring funds to Border Patrol accounts, The Guardian reported.

Backers of the one-month hemp THC delay, including some farm-state Republicans and hemp industry groups, argue that an abrupt federal ban would wipe out small businesses and leave states without time to adjust regulations. Fast-tracking under suspension, leadership allies say, is the cleanest path to avoid a shutdown that PBS NewsHour noted would fall days before the fiscal year ends.

Critics argue

Several House Republicans object to the hemp provision, arguing that Congress finalized a bipartisan crackdown on intoxicating hemp-derived products earlier this year and that a delay, even for 30 days, undermines that work. The Guardian reported that the provision “has prompted criticism from many GOP lawmakers,” some of whom accuse leadership of trading conservative priorities for Democratic votes.

Fiscal conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus have long opposed continuing resolutions on principle, arguing they lock in prior spending levels and delay real appropriations work. Using suspension of the rules, critics say, silences that objection by preventing amendments.

Some Democrats, meanwhile, warn that a stopgap only postpones the fight. Progressive members have said the OMB grants rule and Border Patrol funding limits need to be made permanent rather than paused, and they have pressed for firmer guardrails on how the administration reprograms appropriated money, according to The Guardian’s coverage.

What the experts say

Nonpartisan budget analysts describe continuing resolutions as a stopgap tool that carries real operational costs. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has reported repeatedly that CRs force agencies to delay contracts, hiring, and grants, and that repeated short-term funding raises administrative costs across the government.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) notes that since fiscal year 1977, Congress has completed all regular appropriations bills on time only a handful of times, relying instead on continuing resolutions to bridge gaps. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog, has documented that funding lapses in 2013, 2018, and 2018-2019 each cost the federal government hundreds of millions of dollars in back pay, lost productivity, and contracting delays.

On the hemp question, the Congressional Research Service has noted that the 2018 farm bill legalized hemp but left intoxicating derivatives such as delta-8 THC in a regulatory gray zone, which is what the newer federal ban was designed to close. Brookings Institution scholars studying federal cannabis policy have written that abrupt federal shifts without state coordination often produce enforcement confusion.

By the Numbers

$400 million: approximate cost of the White House ballroom project the Supreme Court allowed to continue Monday, according to PBS NewsHour.

Two-thirds: vote threshold required to pass a bill on the House suspension calendar, per House rules cited by The Guardian.

One month: length of the delay to the federal ban on intoxicating hemp-derived THC products included in the Senate-amended bill, per The Guardian.

Early December: date through which the continuing resolution would fund federal agencies, according to The Guardian.

September 30: end of fiscal year 2026, the statutory deadline by which Congress must act to avoid a lapse in appropriations, per the Congressional Budget Office.

12: number of regular annual appropriations bills Congress is supposed to pass each year but rarely completes on time, according to the Congressional Research Service.

35 days: length of the 2018-2019 partial shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, according to the Congressional Budget Office.