US Senate approves bill to avert government shutdown, sends it to Biden

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - The Democraticmajority U.S. Senate yesterday approved a bill to avert a partial government shutdown, after the Republican-controlled House of Represen-tatives backed it with less than 36 hours before funding would have begun to run out.

The bill, which passed the Senate in a bipartisan 77-13 vote, will next go to President Joe Biden’s desk for signing into law. It will set deadlines to fund one part of the government by March 8 and the other portion by March 22.

“I am happy to inform the American people that there will be no government shutdown on Friday. When we pass this bill, we will have, thank God, avoided a shutdown with all its harmful effects on the American people,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer on the Senate floor.

Earlier on Thursday, in the House, 207 Democrats joined 113 Republicans in a 320-99 vote to approve the short-term stopgap measure, which buys Congress more time to agree on funding for the full fiscal year that began Oct. 1.

About two months have passed since Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Schumer agreed on a $1.59 trillion discretionary spending level for the fiscal year.

Johnson, who has wielded the speaker’s gavel only since late October, once again relied on a procedural move that required Democrats to provide most of the support to pass the stopgap spending bill, a tactic that could anger hardline conservatives.

That and 97 “no” votes from his 219-member Republican conference could spell trouble for the speaker as he takes up six full-year appropriations bills next week and moves on to the thorny issue of Ukraine aid.

Three House Republicans, including House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, predicted Johnson would take up aid to Ukraine, Israel and U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific after completing another six spending bills by March 22. The Senate earlier this month passed the$95 billion national security bill.