Congress prevents government from shutting down on trump's 100th day

House approved spending measure by a vote of 382 to 30, and Senate gave its approval with voice vote

Averting a political embarrassment ahead of President Trump’s 100th day in office, Congress on Friday approved a one-week spending measure that avoids a government shutdown, providing lawmakers with extra time to finish negotiations on a long-term spending package.

But House Republicans left the Capitol with their goal of voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act still eluding them — and eluding Mr. Trump, who will conclude his first 100 days on Saturday without a marquee legislative achievement.

Instead, Republicans had to be satisfied on Friday with simply keeping the lights on.

The approval of the short-term spending measure, which occurred during daylight and without drama, was more a display of basic competence than a proud legislative accomplishment.

With unified control in Washington, Republicans could not afford to fail at the fundamental task of keeping the government funded. At the same time, the spending talks showed one way that Democrats can still exert influence even while in the minority.

The measure approved on Friday, known as a continuing resolution, sustains government operations at current funding levels through next Friday. By that point, congressional leaders hope to have passed a spending package that will cover the rest of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

“A continuing resolution is never anyone’s first choice for funding the government,” said Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen, Republican of New Jersey and the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. “However, this is our best path forward.”

Democrats largely went along with the stopgap measure, though not without registering their complaints about the process.

“I think it’s sad that we’re here at the last minute trying to kick the can down the road,” said Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts. “This could have been avoided.”

The House approved the spending measure by a vote of 382 to 30, and the Senate gave its approval with a voice vote. Congressional leaders expressed optimism that an agreement on the longer-term spending package was within reach.

Some significant obstacles have already been removed from the path of the lawmakers hammering out the spending package — which also minimized the risk of an impasse that could have led to a shutdown this weekend.

For one thing, Mr. Trump backed down from his demand that money be included for the wall he wants to build along the border with Mexico.

The White House also said it would continue to make subsidy payments to insurers under the Affordable Care Act. That assurance satisfied Democrats who wanted the spending agreement to ensure that the subsidies — which lower deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs for low-income consumers — would continue to be funded.

The cordial, bipartisan work on the spending package contrasted with the fierce fighting over health care that shows no sign of abating.

Final negotiations on the long-term spending package played out this week as House Republican leaders tried to round up the necessary votes to move ahead on the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

Some White House officials had hoped a vote on a revised House bill to repeal the health law would take place before Saturday — a step that, if successful, would have showed that Mr. Trump was making progress on a central campaign promise.

“I would love to have had the vote in the first 100 days,” said Representative Mark Meadows, Republican of North Carolina and the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.

But Mr. Meadows noted that it had taken much longer to put the Affordable Care Act in place. “If it takes another couple of days, then so be it,” he said of this year’s repeal bill, adding that he would be “extremely disappointed” if a vote were not held next week.

This week, the revised bill won the backing of the Freedom Caucus, which received much of the blame for the demise of the House’s earlier repeal bill in March, a legislative catastrophe for Mr. Trump and Speaker Paul D. Ryan.

The Freedom Caucus was won over by an amendment allowing states to obtain waivers from certain insurance requirements of the Affordable Care Act.

But the revised bill has drawn opposition from a sizable group of moderate Republican members, and House Republican leaders opted not to hold a vote on the measure on Friday.

Still, Republican leaders are hoping enough of their colleagues can be persuaded to get on board with the measure as a result of the new amendment.

“I anticipate the members reading through it this weekend, and as soon as possible, we will bring that bill to the floor,” said the House majority leader, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California.

Some moderate Republicans worry that the insurance waivers would allow states to gut protections for consumers. But Representative Chris Collins, Republican of New York, said they were seeing “demons in the dark,” and argued that governors would not take actions that hurt their own constituents.

Representative Michael C. Burgess, Republican of Texas and the chairman of the Energy and Commerce health subcommittee, said he was eager for House Republicans to get the bill over to the Senate.

“I’ll stipulate that it’s not perfect, but the next step needs to be taken,” he said. “People have expected us to do this for a long time, and it is something that we need to get done.”

In the meantime, Democrats could at least take comfort in the difficulty that Republicans have had in rounding up the necessary votes.

“Let us begin by being thankful that we’re not going to do great harm to our country this week,” Mr. McGovern said on the House floor.

But he offered a word of caution: “Now, there’s always next week.”