House Republicans introduced a short-term spending bill late Wednesday that would avoid and end-of-week government shutdown and buy seven more days’ time to finalize a full 2017 spending deal.
If the one-week extension passes it means the government will have operated on stop-gap funding for more than seven months of the year.
The current funding expires at midnight Friday. The new bill would extend funding through May 5, averting a partial shutdown that would ensue without any more money in the pipeline.
“This continuing resolution will continue to keep the government open and operating as normal for the next several days, in order to finalize legislation to fund the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year,” said Rep. Rodney Frelinguysen, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
Negotiations on the full 2017 bill hit snags earlier this week when Democrats insisted on including controversial Obamacare money and President Trump insisted on initial funding for his border wall. Mr. Trump eventually dropped his wall demands, and Democrats on Wednesday relented on their Obamacare demand after the administration made clear it wouldn’t unilaterally halt payments.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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