House to vote on $460 billion government funding package ahead of Friday shutdown deadline

The House of Representatives is expected to take one step closer to ending a brutal, months-long fight over government funding on Wednesday with a vote on a nearly $460 billion spending package.

The 1,050-page bipartisan legislation is a package of six bills dealing with departments and agencies whose funding expires on Friday – Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); the Justice and Commerce Departments; Energy and Water Development; the Department of Interior; and Transportation and Housing.

Funding tied to Congress’ six remaining bills, which include the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon, expires on March 22.

If passed, the House will have made major strides toward ending a divisive chapter fueled by disagreements over how federal funds are spent. 

CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS STRIKE SHORT-TERM DEAL TO AVOID GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

Much of the division has been led by GOP hardliners who have wielded outsize influence as a result of House Republicans’ razor-thin majority. House Freedom Caucus members and their allies have called for their leaders to leverage a government shutdown to force significant spending cuts and conservative policy measures. But many have dismissed these as dead on arrival by Democrats who control the Senate and White House.

It’s led to friction within the House GOP, with those hardliners lodging protest votes on procedural measures that have temporarily paralyzed the House floor. A small group of right-wing lawmakers joined all House Democrats last October to boot House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R– Calif., from power, the first time in history a speaker was ousted, The move was precipitated by him working across the aisle to avoid a shutdown.

Those disagreements are the same reason House GOP leaders are bypassing traditional mechanisms to rush the bill to the floor under suspension of the rules – meaning the threshold for passage rises…