The vote sends a stopgap resolution known as a continuing resolution to the Senate.
WASHINGTON – The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a short-term measure to fund federal agencies through Dec. 4 to avert a possible government shutdown ahead of November’s midterm elections.
The vote sends a stopgap resolution known as a continuing resolution to the Senate, where Republican leaders are seeking their own short-term funding bill in negotiations with Democrats.
The resolution approving government spending passed narrowly by a vote of 220 to 205.
Without action by Congress, funding for most federal agency programs will expire at midnight on September 30, the end of the current fiscal year.
The closure threat is the latest in years. In April, Congress finally ended the historic shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, resolving what was the longest crisis of its kind in American history.
The April vote resolved a political standoff that had plagued the Capitol and the country for about 75 days. The ordeal exposed bitter tensions between House and Senate Republicans, left thousands of workers without pay, disrupted air travel and put the safety of Americans at risk.
The impasse was caused by demands by Congressional Democrats for immigration enforcement reform after the murders of Alex Preti and Renee Nicole Good. But the big changes they had hoped for, such as banning police officers from wearing masks and requiring judicial warrants for immigration raids, did not materialize.
