House passes stopgap funding measure, averts shutdown

Feb. 8 (UPI) -- The House passed a stopgap funding bill Tuesday to fund the government for another month and avert a government shutdown.

The chamber voted 272-163 to fund the government through March 11.

Current government funding is expected to run out Feb. 18. The Senate must pass the same legislation and send it to President Joe Biden's desk to avoid a government shutdown next week.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said he plans to bring the bill before the upper chamber for a vote.

"While negotiations on a full-year funding agreement continue, we will, in the meantime, avoid a pointless and costly government shutdown," he said, according to CNN.

The continuing resolution is expected to give Congress another month to work on a larger deal to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year in the fall.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., chairwoman of the House Committee on Appropriations, introduced the stopgap bill Monday.

"Our country needs a government funding agreement to create good-paying jobs, grow opportunity for the middle class and protect our national security. We are close to reaching a framework government funding agreement, but we will need additional time to complete the legislation in full," she said in a statement accompanying the bill's introduction.

"This continuing resolution -- the product of bipartisan, bicameral negotiation -- extends funding through March 11 to keep government up and running while Congress completes our important work."

House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland indicated he was frustrated it's taken so long to pass legislation to fully fund the government through the end of the fiscal year.

"We should have passed all 12 appropriation bills to fund the government for this coming fiscal year that we're now in -- fiscal year '22 -- we should have passed that by Sept. 30," he said in an appearance on The Sunday Show on MSNBC.