The House Tuesday passed a stopgap spending bill that will keep the government funded through Dec. 11 after working out a deal with Republicans on agriculture aid and food stamps.
The measure now heads to the Senate, where it is expected to pass this week.
The year’s funding expires on Sept. 30, and the emergency bill is needed to keep government departments and agencies running “on autopilot” at 2020 funding levels while lawmakers work out a yearlong deal.
The two parties struck a deal after a battle over farm funding and food stamps.
“The last thing the United States of America needs right now, in the midst of a pandemic, is a lapse in government funding,” Rep. Rodney Davis, an Illinois Republican who recovered from a recent bout of the coronavirus, said.
The partisan dispute over the bill was resolved after Republicans agreed to allow the spending measure to include $8 billion in additional funding for food stamps by extending waivers included in a recent coronavirus aid bill.
Democrats relented on allowing a key farm aid fund they oppose to be replenished in the spending bill but with prohibitions “on any payments to fossil fuel refiners and importers,” Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, a New York Democrat, said.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not yet scheduled a vote on the spending bill.
