–House, Senate Approve Stop-Gap Friday That Funds Gov Until Tuesday
–Senate Minority Leader Predicts Passage of ‘Short-Term’ Funding Bill
By John Shaw
WASHINGTON (MNI) – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said
Sunday that Congress this coming week will pass a stop-gap spending bill
to keep the federal government running until March.
Appearing on CNN, McConnell said an agreement was at hand on a
funding measure that will keep the government running.
“We’re going to pass a short-term continuing resolution over into
March,” he said.
Congress Friday passed a three-day, stop-gap spending bill that
funds the federal government until Tuesday.
The House and Senate are trying to wrap up their work for the year
by early in the coming week.
Senate Democratic leaders are trying to pass a nuclear arms
reduction treaty between the U.S. and Russia in the coming days as well
as the stop-gap spending bill, while House leaders have indicated that
the stop-gap spending bill is probably the final item on their agenda
this year.
Several weeks ago, the House passed a year-long stop gap spending
bill that would have funded the government in fiscal year 2011 at fiscal
year 2010 spending levels.
However, Senate Democrats tried a different approach, folding
all 12 of the regular spending bills into an omnibus package.
Senate Republicans cited the cost of the measure — $1.1 trillion
— and it’s length at nearly 2,000 pages as central reasons for blocking
the measure. Republicans also cited the measure’s inclusions of hundreds
of earmarks as a reason to oppose the omnibus spending bill.
With longer-term funding measures derailed, congressional leaders
now appear to be in agreement to pass a spending bill that would fund
the government until March.
Congress has not passed any of the 12 regular spending bills for
the 2011 fiscal year that began Oct 1. A series of short-term spending
bills have kept the government funded.
** Market News International Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **
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