President Joe Biden signed legislation Friday to keep the government funded beyond the Friday midnight deadline for when the current budget was set to expire, narrowly averting a shutdown for the fourth time in recent months as a divided Congress has failed to reach an agreement on a new spending plan.
U.S. President Joe Biden walks across the South Lawn before boarding the Marine One presidential ... [+]
Biden signed the bill to continue funding several federal agencies through March 8 and the rest through March 22 after the Senate passed the legislation in a 77-13 vote Thursday night, hours after the House passed the legislation in a 320-99 vote.
In the House, two Democrats and 97 Republicans voted against the bill, while no Democrats and 13 Republicans in the Senate opposed the legislation.
Thursday’s votes marked the fourth time since the 2023 fiscal year expired at the end of September that Congress has voted to narrowly avert a government shutdown.
The short-term “stopgap” measures effectively allow the government to continue operating under the 2023 fiscal year budget, giving lawmakers additional time to work out the details of a full-year spending plan for fiscal year 2024.
Congressional leaders announced Thursday they’d reached a deal on six of the 12 appropriations bills that make up the fiscal year 2024 budget, including funding for the Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration, the Commerce and Justice Departments, the Transportation Department and Housing and Urban Development, among others, to be voted on before March 8. The deal extends the deadline to fund the rest of the government through March 22.