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Dec. 14 (UPI) -- As a government shutdown loomed with Congress heading into the winter holiday break, House lawmakers on Wednesday voted to extend funding one week to award leadership more time to finish hashing out a $1.7 trillion spending package for the next fiscal year. The Wednesday vote saw the short-term spending bill pass 224-201 mostly along party lines to keep the government funded past the Friday midnight deadline through Dec. 23.
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The measure was agreed to as congressional leaders continue to negotiate a bipartisan omnibus spending package that will need to pass both the House and Senate and be signed by President Joe Biden before the 117th Congress, which concludes on Jan. 3, goes on holiday break.
On Tuesday, that appropriations leadership announced it had agreed on a framework for the bill, the specifics of which were not released to the public.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, chair of the House committee on appropriations, explained from the floor Wednesday that the continuing resolution was in essence a "simple date change that keeps the government up and running as we negotiate the details of final spending bills and complete the work of funding the government programs that meet the needs of hardworking Americans."
After the resolution passed, the Connecticut Democrat issued a statement saying both appropriations committees of the House and Senate were "working around the clock" negotiating the details of spending bills and that she is "encouraged" by their agreement on a framework "that provides a path forward to enact an omnibus next week."
Earlier Wednesday, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said from the Senate floor that once the House passes the continuing resolution they should do likewise without the "unwelcome brouhaha that provoked shutdowns in the past."
"We should be ready to act quickly, as soon as tomorrow if we can," he said.
However, with the sun setting on the Democrat-controlled House and about to rise on the Republicans taking a majority in the chamber of the 118th U.S. Congress, GOP House leadership could try and push the omnibus deal into the new year.
"They've had the House, the Senate and the presidency," House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said of the Democratic party during a press conference Wednesday. "They did not do their work. They should not jam us now. They should not jam the American public. We can not afford it."
"We should not move a short-term C.R. We should move one further into the new year," he said. "We can not continue to spend the way the Democrats have."
Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, the leading Republican on the House appropriations committee, said she will oppose any omnibus bill that includes significant funding for non-defense programs and that the continuing resolution should have extended funding not to two days before Christmas but into the next Congress.
House Republicans, she said, will work on a bill to cut "wasteful spending" and reduce inflation that prioritizes border security and the military.
"We have to stop this out-of-control spending," she said.
From the floor Wednesday, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell criticized Democrats for pushing the funding issue to the last minute.
"I'm glad we're finally going to wrap up the basic governing duty that we have in the next few days," McConnell said.
"I'm glad that our Democratic colleagues finally accepted reality and conceded to the Republican position that we need to prioritize our national security," he said. "Republicans simply were not going to lavish extra liberal spending on the commander and chief's own party as a reward for adequately funding our national defense. It simply wasn't going to happen."
The Kentucky Republican, however, signaled a willingness to sign the omnibus bill before Christmas.
"If a truly bipartisan full-year bill without poison pills is ready for final Senate passage by late next week then I'll support it," he said.
