The House has voted 320 to 99 to approve a short-term spending bill to avoid a partial government shutdown at the end of the day on Friday. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, told reporters in the Capitol that he expects the Senate to vote on the bill as quickly as possible, perhaps by the end of the day today. The exact timing is still unclear.
The stop-gap bill was part of a broader bipartisan agreement between all four leaders in the House and Senate. The deal also included an agreement on six of the twelve annual spending bills. Leaders committed to voting on those bills by Friday, March 8. The stop-gap under consideration today give them until March 22 to finish work on the remaining six bills.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell and the House and Senate appropriations leads, released a joint statement on Wednesday committing to a plan to approve the legislation before the end of March.
"Negotiators have come to an agreement on six bills: Agriculture-FDA, Commerce-Justice and Science, Energy and Water Development, Interior, Military Construction-VA, and Transportation-HUD," they said in a statement.
"After preparing final text, this package of six full year Appropriations bills will be voted on and enacted prior to March 8," they wrote. "The remaining six Appropriations bills – Defense, Financial Services and General Government, Homeland Security, Labor-HHS, Legislative Branch, and State and Foreign Operations - will be finalized, voted on, and enacted prior to March 22."
This story will be updated.
