US Senate passes spending bill, averts imminent shutdown

The U.S. Senate narrowly averted a partial government shutdown on Friday (March 8), as the chamber approved spending legislation for several government agencies just hours before current funding was due to expire, Reuters reports.

 

By a bipartisan vote of 75-22, the Senate approved a $467.5 billion spending package that will fund agriculture, transportation, housing, energy, veterans and other programs through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. The package now heads to Democratic President Joe Biden to sign into law.

 

Funding for those programs was due to expire at midnight.

 

The package easily passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives earlier this week. But action in the Senate was delayed as some conservative Republicans pressed for votes on immigration and other topics. They all failed.

 

All these measures were supposed to have been enacted into law by last Oct. 1, the start of the 2024 fiscal year. While Congress rarely meets that deadline, the debate this year has been unusually chaotic. Congress so far has had to approve four temporary funding bills to keep agency operations limping along at their previous year's levels.