The Senate on Wednesday passed a stopgap bill to keep the government open, averting a shutdown for now while setting up a contentious fight over funding in the new year.
The bill was approved by the House on Tuesday and will now be sent to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. Government funding is currently set to expire at the end of the week on Friday, November 17. The Senate passed the bill by a vote of 87 to 11.
Lawmakers are still under pressure to try to negotiate and pass full-year spending bills in just over two months as the stopgap bill creates two new shutdown deadlines in January and February, an unusual two-step approach to funding the government.
It’ll be weird though, unlike past resolutions the Republicans wanted part of the government funding continued until January and part continued until February. I worry this means Republicans are planning on letting it lapse in some kind of partial shutdown.