Senate passes short-term funding bill to avert partial government shutdown

The Senate passed a stopgap measure Thursday night to avoid a government shutdown, which would have begun on Saturday, the first funding deadline for appropriations bills as laid out in the previous two-pronged spending bill.

Senators voted 77-13 to pass the continuing resolution, making the chamber aligned with the House. The bill now goes to President Biden to sign. 

The continuing resolution passed the House earlier in the day, by a vote of 320-99. The bill moves funding deadlines to March 8 and March 22, rather than March 1 and March 8 initially agreed upon. 

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From left to right: House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. (Getty Images)

“We are in agreement that Congress must work in a bipartisan manner to fund our government,” House Speaker Mike Johnson R-La., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries D-N.Y., said in a joint statement on Wednesday, along with House Appropriations Committee Chair Kay Granger, R-Texas, House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine. 

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According to the lawmakers, six funding bills each for Agriculture-FDA, Commerce-Justice and Science, Energy and Water Development, Interior, Military Construction-VA, and Transportation-HUD will be taken up for votes and enacted ahead of the first deadline on March 8. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, left, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, right, pose for a photo at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on July 27, 2023.  (Saul Loeb)

Negotiators are in agreement on the first six measures, which will be guided by both the Fiscal Responsibility Act discretionary spending limits, as well as the January topline spending agreement, per the statement. The deal laid out a $1.6 trillion topline amount for spending in the fiscal year, with $886 billion allotted for defense spending and $704 billion for non-defense purposes.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

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An additional slate of six bills, including those for Defense, Financial Services and General Government, Homeland Security, Labor-HHS, Legislative Branch, and State and Foreign Operations, are set to be agreed upon, taken up for votes, and signed into law ahead of the later March 22 deadline. 

The latest continuing resolution is the fourth such extension since the Congress’s failure to pass separate appropriations bills by the Sept. 30 deadline. It now heads to President Biden’s desk for a signature to avoid a partial shutdown at midnight on Friday.

Fox News Digital’s Bradford Betz contributed to this report.