The U.S. Senate on Saturday night, with mere hours left before a midnight deadline for a federal government shutdown, voted to advance a short-term stopgap funding measure. The 45-day continuing resolution, which funds the government at existing 2023 levels, includes disaster relief funds but no Ukraine aid. A debate over continued help for Ukraine after Russia’s illegal invasion is what pushed the Senate vote so close to the deadline. The Senate approved the temporary funding by a vote of 88 to 9, exceeding the necessary 60 votes.
Earlier Saturday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the California Republican, pushed the 45-day funding bill through his chamber. But he may have put his future leadership role again in jeopardy as his far-right flank had spoken out against a short-term solution to avoid the shutdown. Politico, writing Saturday, had suggested that the bipartisan nature of the House’s passage, by a 335-91 vote, made Senate approval more likely, a last-minute shift that surprised much of Washington’s Capitol Hill watchers. Saturday’s passage in the Senate ended a weeks-long House debate over government funding that appeared to be headed toward a shutdown. The Senate eventually dropped its own stopgap bill to pass the House version that was introduced only Saturday morning. House Republicans had joined with Democrats Friday night to d …
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