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Once again, US congressional leaders reached a deal to avoid a partial government shutdown this weekend, reaching agreement on six of 12 funding bills that have been stalled for months.
Under the new agreement, a number of federal agencies (including the departments of Commerce, Energy and Justice) will be temporarily funded until March 8, and the rest – including the departments of Defense and Homeland Security – until March 22. Previous deadlines were March 1st and March 8th.
The House of Representatives and Senate plan to vote on the latest resolution this week. Meanwhile, lawmakers will work to finalize the details of the ~$1.6 trillion federal spending package.
“We agree that Congress must work in a bipartisan way to fund our government,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said in a joint declaration.
“The bipartisan agreement would help prevent an unnecessary shutdown while providing more time to work on bipartisan appropriations bills,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said.
Lawmakers have already pushed back deadlines on funding projects three times before the latest stopgap measure, given continued disagreement over foreign aid and border restrictions.
“It’s sad that a continuing resolution for a full year is the most realistic option to do something positive for the American people, but it would at least save $100 billion over the current deal,” said Rep. Bob Good (R -IT GOES).