Congress Passes Short-Term Spending Bill to Avert a Shutdown
The New York Times
In a pair of votes in quick succession, the House and Senate moved to keep federal funding flowing through Dec. 20. But they punted a bigger spending fight to the end of the year.
Congress on Wednesday gave final approval to a short-term spending bill to avert a government shutdown just ahead of the November elections, sending the legislation to President Biden’s desk but punting a bigger funding fight to the end of the year.
In a pair of votes in quick succession, lawmakers in both chambers overwhelmingly voted to pass the measure to keep federal funding flowing through Dec. 20. The Senate vote was 78 to 18. All the “no” votes were Republicans.
Mr. Biden is expected to sign the legislation before the Sept. 30 deadline.
“It is a relief for the country, that once again, bipartisanship prevailed to stop another shutdown threat,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said. “It took much longer than it should have, but because House Republicans finally — finally — chose to work with us in the end, Congress is getting the job done tonight.”
Less than two hours before, the House approved the bill in a 341 to 82 vote, with a majority of the Republican conference and all Democrats present linking arms to pass the legislation.
Speaker Mike Johnson again turned to Democrats to supply the bulk of the votes after conservatives in his own conference said they would not support the legislation because it would not cut spending and did not include a measure imposing new proof-of-citizenship requirements on voter registration.
