President Joe Biden on Friday signed a stopgap spending bill aimed at avoiding a partial government shutdown, one day after it was passed by majorities in the House and the Senate.
The White House announced that Biden signed the measure on Friday afternoon. It will fund government operations until early March.
The bill was the result of negotiations between Democrats and Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor Thursday. He spoke just ahead of the 77-18 vote that sent the legislation to the House.
[ Congressional leaders preparing stopgap bill to fund government through March ]
“Because both sides have worked together, the government will stay open, services will not be disrupted, we will avoid a needless disaster,” he said.
He added, “Keeping the government open wasn’t a given.”
The measure went on to pass the House in a 314-108 vote later Thursday.
The bill will extend funding for about 20% of government functions, including the Transportation, Defense and State departments, through March 1 and March 8, according to The Washington Post. A portion of the funding had been set to expire just after midnight on Saturday morning, with the rest to expire in early February, the newspaper reported.
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The legislation marks the third continuing resolution passed to fund government operations since Oct. 1, when the current fiscal year started, according to Reuters. Continuing resolutions are temporary spending bills that allow the government to continue functioning with spending levels and priorities kept the same as they were in the previous year.
Hard-line Republicans have opposed approving another continuing resolution, calling instead for deep spending cuts or a deal on border policy as a condition for funding the government, according to The Wall Street Journal. Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus tried Thursday to get a vote to attach a House-passed border-security bill to the continuing resolution, but the was shot down by House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office, the newspaper reported.
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“Our speaker, Mr. Johnson, said he was the most conservative speaker we’ve ever had, and yet here we are putting this bill on the floor this afternoon without conservative policy riders,” said Freedom Caucus member Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., according to the Journal. “Talk is cheap. The American people deserve better.”
Earlier, Republicans ousted then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in part because of his decision to work with Democrats to avert a government shutdown last year.