Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., talks reporters as he returns to the U.S. Capitol following meetings at the White House on Tuesday.
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The Senate voted 77 to 13 to approve a short-term spending bill that would prevent a partial government shutdown at the end of the day on Friday. The House passed the bill earlier in the day, giving Congress more time to finish work on long-term funding plans.
The bill now heads to the White House for President Biden's signature.
The stop-gap bill was part of a broader bipartisan agreement between all four leaders in the House and Senate. The deal also included an agreement on six of the twelve annual spending bills. Leaders committed to voting on those bills by Friday, March 8. The stop-gap under consideration today give them until March 22 to finish work on the remaining six bills.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell and the House and Senate appropriations leads, released a joint statement on Wednesday committing to a plan to approve the legislation before the end of March.
"Negotiators have come to an agreement on six bills: Agriculture-FDA, Commerce-Justice and Science, Energy and Water Development, Interior, Military Construction-VA, and Transportation-HUD," they said in a statement.
"After preparing final text, this package of six full year Appropriations bills will be voted on and enacted prior to March 8," they wrote. "The remaining six Appropriations bills – Defense, Financial Services and General Government, Homeland Security, Labor-HHS, Legislative Branch, and State and Foreign Operations - will be finalized, voted on, and enacted prior to March 22."
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