Congress averts govt shutdown

With US congress set to pass an interim spending measure on Friday, President Donald Trump has been saved the embarrassment of celebrating his 100 days in office with his government partially shut down because of lapsed funding.

The instrument, passed by the House of Representatives and was expected to be cleared by the senate later, will keep the government funded for a week beyond Friday midnight when funding was set to lapse.

Congress now has another week to pass a regular funding bill to keep the federal government running for the rest of the fiscal year, ending September 30, and avert a shutdown that was last seen in 2013, in President Barack Obama’s second term.

The fate of the spending bill had been plunged into uncertainty by the White House’s attempts to include in it $1.5 billion funding for one of Trump’s key election promises, a wall along the border with Mexico.

Trump had promised to start work on it as among his first tasks in office and the administration was keen to be able to show progress on this front and include it among the achievement of his first 100 days in office. Republicans did not have the numbers needed to offset defections and make the necessary numbers in the upper chamber.