Alaska’s three members of Congress joined a majority of the House and Senate in voting to approve a budgetary resolution that averts a government shutdown until at least December.
Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola, joined the House in voting 341-82 to pass the measure, and the Senate voted 78-18, with Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan also voting in favor.
The measure goes to the desk of President Joe Biden, who has said he will sign it.
If Congress had failed to act, the federal government would have partially shut down starting Sept. 30.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump had asked Congress to vote against the budget-funding measure because it does not include a separate bill that would require voters to show citizenship documents to elections officials.
House Republicans attempted last week to pass a resolution that would have included Trump’s preferred bill and funded the government through March, but 14 House Republicans voted against the proposal.
Republicans nominally hold a majority of seats in the House, but opposition from those Republicans — most of whom opposed any extension — killed the idea because House Democrats opposed Trump’s preferred bill and wanted a December extension.
Democratic opposition to the citizenship issue is partially based on voters’ experience in Arizona, which passed a state-level measure in 2004. An analysis by Votebeat, a nonpartisan nonprofit, found the bill impacted college students and the homeless.
Opponents of the idea, including Biden, who vowed to veto it, said that elections officials wouldn’t have time to implement it before the November election, and that trying to do so would cause confusion among voters.
Extending federal funding through December buys Congress time to pass ordinary funding bills and would allow the winner of November’s presidential election to start with a fresh legislative slate.
Ahead of last week’s House vote, Peltola said she supported the idea of a December extension. Peltola’s principal opponent in this year’s U.S. House race, Republican Nick Begich, didn’t initially state a position on the issue but after Wednesday’s vote, he criticized Peltola and implied that he would have supported Trump’s position.
“As we head toward the holidays Congress should take steps to ensure core government services are adequately funded, but Peltola’s vote against commonsense provisions in the SAVE Act is just one more vote in lockstep with national Democrats,” he said in a statement posted on social media.
