Biden signs last-minute deal to avert government shutdown

Biden on Thursday signed a deal to avert a government shutdown that with the president's signature would narrowly avoid a government shutdown.

President Joe Biden on Thursday evening signed a deal the House and Senate passed earlier in the day to avert a government shutdown that would have affected hundreds of thousands of federal workers and slammed an economy still struggling to recover from the pandemic, all with just hours left to stave off a crisis.

"It meets critical and urgent needs of the nation," the president said in a statement Thursday night, but he also noted, "There’s so much more to do."

Under the deal, announced by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, senators dispensed with a handful of Republican amendments and then approved, 65-35, a temporary funding bill that not only averts a shutdown until Dec. 3, but also includes $28.6 billion in disaster aid for states ravaged by extreme weather and $6.3 billion to further assist Afghan refugees.

The House passed the Senate version of the stopgap measure later Thursday afternoon, 254-175, just hours before the government technically runs out of money at the end of the day Thursday.