Senate passes temporary spending package to avert government shutdown

The Senate on Thursday passed a one-week spending package that would extend the deadline for lawmakers to pass a full-year omnibus package to Dec. 23.

In a 71-19 vote, lawmakers backed the measure, sending it to President Joe Biden's desk as the House passed it in a 224-201 vote earlier this week.

Passage of the stopgap follows the announcement from party negotiators that they had reached "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."

Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy and Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, the upper chamber's top negotiators on the larger spending package, announced the deal on Wednesday and expressed optimism that Congress would pass a year-long budget before the deadline.

Some Republicans, meanwhile, have encouraged Senate lawmakers to hold off on approving a full omnibus package and wait until the GOP assumes control of the House in January so as to apply more leverage on Democrats and extract concessions on spending. These lawmakers have found themselves in conflict with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has firmly backed the passage of an omnibus.