Congress Passes 5-Day Spending Bill, Temporarily Averts Government Shutdown

The House approved the bill by voice vote early on Friday afternoon, sending it to the White House for President Barack Obama’s signature. Disagreements between Republicans and Democrats over the environment, taxes and Syrian refugees have stalled the measure.

“This is one where we were served up a particular deck of cards, if you will, and we’ve got to play it in order to keep from getting a shutdown”.

On the day the federal government is due to run out of money, Congress did what it does best – punted the deadline for a few more days to avoid a shutdown.

“Not every piece of legislation we’re going to agree on every part of it. But i think the underlying legislation we present today is a product of bipartisan cooperation and compromise and give and take”, Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma said Friday. “The Democrats aren’t going to get everything they want in negotiations”, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, told reporters Thursday. The bill also would make permanent a moratorium that prevents states from taxing access to the Internet. With Congress’ legislative year drawing to a close, lawmakers were eager to finalize their work and head home for the holidays. “We’ve had meetings, there’s no finality”, Senate Minority Leader Harry, D-Nev., said late Thursday. The final areas of contention are the so-called “riders”, the policy issues that lawmakers like to add to must-do bills. Democrats oppose those GOP efforts and are pushing to lift the ban on gun violence research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At the same time, the No. 2 in the House of Representatives, California Republican Kevin McCarthy, said that lawmakers will not be in session until December 15, as was planned before the extension of the negotiations was agreed upon.

Ahead of the vote, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ken., said the short-term bill was unfortunately necessary to provide a little more time to complete negotiations.