Biden signs short-term spending bill to avert government shutdown

President Joe Biden on Friday signed a one-week stopgap funding bill to keep the government operating until Dec. 23, giving lawmakers another week to negotiate a larger omnibus spending package that would fund the government for next year.

The Senate on Thursday approved the continuing resolution in a 71-19 vote while the House backed the measure by a 224-201 margin earlier this week. The government will accordingly remain in operation while lawmakers work to finalize the year-long budget plan.

Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy announced earlier this week that negotiators had "reached a bipartisan, bicameral framework that should allow us to finish an omnibus appropriations bill that can pass the House and Senate and be signed into law by the president." Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, the leading Republican negotiator expressed optimism that the upper chamber would finalize the deal before next week's deadline.

The compromise comes amid a dispute with the GOP over whether to wait for the party to assume control of the House in January so as to extract a better deal from Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has asserted that the existing compromise is likely the best deal the party may negotiate, though many Republican lawmakers disagree and have accused the Kentucky Republican of "coercing" them to back the package.