Congress approves temporary spending bill to avert shutdown through holidays

Congress finally ended the threat of government shutdown until after holidays, as they approved the temporary government funding package that pushes a confrontation over the federal budget into the new year.

The Senate met into the night to pass the bill with a tally of 87-11 and send it to President Joe Biden for his signature a day after it passed the House with an overwhelming bipartisan vote. This provides funding patch until next year up till when the House and the Senate will require to fix their differences on what funding levels should be.

Meanwhile, the bill removes the threat of a government shutdown days before funding would have expired.

Post passing the bill, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, at a news conference, said, “This year, there will be no government shutdown.”

The spending package will assure the government funding to remain intact for roughly two more months while a long-term package is negotiated. The deadline for passing the appropriation bill has been split in two – January 19 for some federal agencies and February for others – which means there will be risk of partial government shutdown.