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Politics

Senate approves House-passed stopgap bill to prevent partial government shutdown 

By
Victor Nava
Published Feb. 29, 2024, 9:25 p.m. ET

The Senate passed a temporary spending measure Thursday to avoid a partial government shutdown ahead of a Friday deadline. 

Senators approved the stopgap bill in a 77-13 vote, sending it to President Biden, who is expected to sign it. The bill passed the House of Representatives in a 320-99 vote earlier in the day. 

Four Republican-introduced amendments to the short-term spending measure were defeated before the final Senate vote on the legislation. 

Chuck Schumer
Schumer said the Senate will take up votes on six appropriations bills next week. AP

The measure, known as a continuing resolution or CR, pushes the first of two deadlines to fund some government departments back to March 8 from this coming Friday.

The second deadline, to fund all remaining agencies, will be pushed to March 22 from March 8.

Ahead of the Senate vote, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said that the CR’s passage would “clear the way for the first 6 appropriations bills next week.”

Mike Johnson
The House of Representatives passed the CR earlier Thursday in a 320-99 vote. REUTERS

Negotiators have come to an agreement on full-year appropriations bills that would fund the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Interior, Veterans Affairs and Transportation that must be enacted prior to March 8.

The remaining six funding bills, concerning financial services and general government, the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, State and Labor, and the legislative branch and foreign operations must be finalized and voted on prior to March 22.

Every new fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, Congress is tasked with funding the government via 12 appropriation bills. They are often packaged together in an omnibus measure.

Nearly five months into fiscal year 2024, lawmakers have passed three stopgap CRs but no individual appropriations bills have reached the Senate.

Back in January, congressional leaders unveiled a deal on top-line funding numbers: $886.3 billion in spending for defense and $772.7 billion in various non-defense programs.

Biden is set to deliver the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on March 7, one day before the first spending deadline.