The House of Representatives will vote Saturday on a short-term spending bill aimed at avoiding a government shutdown.
The funding patch would last for 45 days past the end of the fiscal year, which concludes at midnight Sunday, Oct. 1. The bill would also include $16 billion for U.S. disaster relief aid that President Biden requested over the summer, Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said on Saturday.
The bill would also be a “clean” extension of the current year’s funding priorities, which were set by the Democratically-held Congress last year.
It comes after House Republicans tried and failed to pass a stopgap funding bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), filled with conservative policy items like border security and spending cuts.
The bill is being expedited past normal processes, and will need two-thirds of the House for approval — meaning Democrats will have to vote in favor of the plan for it to pass.
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., talks to reporters just after the Republican majority in the House narrowly passed a sweeping debt ceiling package as they try to push President Joe Biden into negotiations on federal spending, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, April 26, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
“We need more time to get the job done,” McCarthy told reporters ahead of the vote. McCarthy said he did not want to “punish” military service members or border agents for the House’s failure to pass a budget that ends wasteful spending and addresses border security.
“I want to keep government open while we finish our job to secure the border,” he said.
This story is breaking and will be updated…
