The Senate passed a spending bill that temporarily averts a government shutdown.
On Wednesday, the Senate voted 84-10 in bipartisan fashion to approve a continuing resolution that funds the government until Dec. 11, which the House of Representatives passed last week. President Trump is expected to sign the bill Wednesday night before current funding levels are due to expire.
The bill also includes $8 billion in nutrition assistance for families amid the coronavirus pandemic, allows for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to access 2021 funding to combat wildfires setting the West Coast ablaze and dangerous storms this hurricane season on the East Coast, and finances a possible transition should Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden win the November election.
The funding extension follows ongoing negotiations between Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over a coronavirus relief package, a stimulus measure debated for several weeks. On Wednesday, Mnuchin told reporters that the two have not reached a deal on the scope of federal aid but that they “made a lot of progress in a lot of areas.”
However, the bill’s mid-December extension deadline sets up a potential government shutdown in a lame-duck Congress after the general election. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are continuing efforts to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, Trump’s third high-court nominee.
