U.S. House passes stopgap funding bill to avert gov't shutdown

Olympia (Washington), December 21: The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed a new stopgap spending bill after scrambling for new plans following U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's last-minute intervention, likely averting a government shutdown just hours before the deadline.
The lower chamber voted 366-34 to approve the bill, which would fund the government at the current levels until mid-March, providing lawmakers with additional time to negotiate new spending bills. All lawmakers voting to oppose this bill are Republicans.
Earlier this week, the House unveiled a 1,500-page bill, which would allow the government to maintain its current spending levels until March 14. It also included 100 billion dollars in disaster relief, a one-year extension of the farm bill with an extra 10 billion dollars in aid for farmers.
Trump opposed the bipartisan bill, calling for "a streamlined spending bill that doesn't give the Democrats everything they want," and requesting the addition of terms that increase the debt ceiling.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republican leaders then rushed to come up with a Plan B -- a 116-page bill that would fund the government at the current levels until March 14, including the 100 billion disaster relief and 10 billion in economic aid to farmers, while stripping away a number of policy provisions in the original deal. It would also extend the nation's debt limit through Jan. 30, 2027, as requested by Trump.
The House failed to pass the revised plan on Thursday, with both Democrats and some conservatives opposing it. Some conservative Republicans were unwilling to raise the government's borrowing limit, and Democrats also refused to concede to Trump's debt ceiling demand at the last minute.
House Republican leaders then negotiated again with Democratic leaders, and just six hours before a potential federal government shutdown, the two sides reached an agreement and passed a new short-term spending bill.
U.S. Congress is typically required to pass the appropriations bill for the new fiscal year before Oct. 1. However, due to intense partisan disputes in recent years, the two parties often fail to reach an agreement in time, prompting Congress to pass short-term spending bills to temporarily keep the federal government running.
In late September, Congress passed a short-term spending bill that extended government funding from Sept. 30 to Dec. 20.
Source: Xinhua News Agency