New spending bill to avert government shutdown passes House
Raw StoryA last-ditch effort to temporarily fund the government and avert a shutdown passed the House on Friday, a sigh of relief for millions of federal workers whose paychecks were thrust into uncertainty during the holidays. The latest attempt at a funding bill comes after lawmakers scrambled to update the spending bill this week following House Republicans' failure to pass a Donald Trump-backed bill on Thursday. That followed a dramatic series of events Wednesday when Trump and close ally Elon Musk helped kill the GOP’s first attempt at a funding bill, which would've funded the government through mid-March. Rep. Steve Scalise told reporters Friday that what brought the House scrambling to assemble a last-minute spending bill hours before a government shutdown was Senate Democrats and President Joe Biden. He added that incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune “wants to take the appropriations process seriously so we don’t have all these midnight hour showdowns that the country is tired of.” The Office of Management and Budget had put federal agencies on notice Friday morning to make preparations for an imminent government shutdown.