House passes first bills to avert government shutdown until September

• The six bills were passed in a single package, known as a minibus, in a broadly bipartisan 335-85 vote.

The details: The bills, agreed to by both parties, fund the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Transportation and Veterans Affairs.

• They include minimal spending cuts and conservative policy riders, to the chagrin of House right-wingers, in order to make them palatable to Senate Democrats and President Biden.

Between the lines: The bill was passed under a process that required a two-thirds majority but allowed GOP leadership to bypass a party-line procedural vote that right-wing hardliners likely would have tanked.

• The right-wing Freedom Caucus opposed the bill, correctly predicting that it would receive more votes from Democrats than Republicans.
• It's not clear whether House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will face an attempted ouster due to the passage of the bills.

What's next: The bill heads to the Senate, while the House begins work on the next six appropriations bills.

• Those bills, which include the massive budgets of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Pentagon, will be more controversial. The deadline to pass them is March 22.