Congress approves short-term extension to avoid government shutdown

By Zhihao Zhu

Congress passed another short-term extension Thursday to avoid another shutdown for parts of the federal government, which would have started Saturday. This would keep a group of federal departments operative through March 8 and another set through March 22. The bill has been sent to the hands of President Joe Biden to be signed into effect.

The vote to approve the decision was 320-99, clearing the two-thirds majority needed to pass. Many Democrats voted in favor of avoiding the shutdown, but the vote was more divided for Republicans, with 113 in support and 97 against the bill. The Senate took up the bill and voted 77-13.

This has been the fourth short-term extension in a few months, and many lawmakers hope it will be the last for this fiscal year. House Speaker Mike Johnson said negotiators had finished six of the annual spending bills that fund federal departments and “almost [had] final agreement on the others.”

Both the House and Senate must take up a package of six spending bills next week and approve them to the president before March 8. Afterwards, lawmakers will need to fund the rest of the government by the new March 22 deadline.

The leaders said that this one-week extension was needed to allow the appropriations committees “adequate time to execute on this deal in principle” as well as to give lawmakers more time to evaluate the individual bill’s text.