As usual, Congress passes temporary spending bill to avert shutdown

WASHINGTON — Congress passed a temporary spending bill Thursday to avert a “government shutdown.”

The measure passed the House on a 231-188 vote over Democratic opposition and then cleared the Senate, 66-32, with Democrats providing some of the key votes. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the measure.

The legislation would keep the government from closing down at midnight Friday.

Congress will return in January looking to deal with issues such as immigration, the federal budget, health care and national security along with legislation to increase the government’s authority to borrow money.

“Now it gets down to some very difficult decisions on how we move forward in the first and second quarter of next year,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., a leader of a powerful faction of hardright Republicans. “There is a lot to do next month. I’m not worried today. I’ll wait until January to be worried, OK?”

Among the items left behind was $81 billion worth of disaster aid, which passed the House on a bipartisan 251- 169 tally but stalled in the Senate. The measure would have brought this year’s tally for aid to hurricane victims in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and other parts of the Caribbean, as well as fire-ravaged California, to more than $130 billion. But both Republicans and Democrats in the Senate want changes, and it was among the items Democrats sought to hold onto for leverage next year.