Congressional leaders announced Wednesday afternoon—just days before their Friday deadline—they found a way to avoid a partial shutdown of the government by coming to an agreement on six of the must-pass spending bills and pushing the deadline for the remaining six to later in March.
Negotiators agreed on bills set to be voted on by March 8 to continue funding Agriculture-FDA, Commerce-Justice, Transportation-HUD and several other federal programs , according to a joint statement from leadership.
In order to allow time to review the deals and for the language to be drafted, lawmakers will vote this week on a short-term continuing resolution to fund the agencies through March 8.
Appropriation bills to fund departments such as Defense, Labor-HHS and State will be voted on and enacted before March 22, the statement said.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and others said in the statement they are “in agreement that Congress must work in a bipartisan manner” to fund the government.