The U.S. Senate on Wednesday was poised to advance a stop-gap funding bill to avert a looming federal government shutdown, after Democrats and Republicans agreed to help Flint, Michigan, resolve its water crisis.
Republican House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi reached the deal late on Tuesday, hours after a piece of legislation known as a continuing resolution aimed at avoiding the shutdown failed to garner enough votes to advance in the Senate.
“It should lead to our being able to move forward on this continuing resolution. There are a couple of other outstanding issues. But I think they should be able to be resolved,” Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said on Wednesday.
A conservative group, Heritage Action, on Wednesday said the spending bill “falls far short of conservative expectations” and urged Congress to defeat it. But with House and Senate members eager to go home to campaign for re-election, the measure appeared headed toward passage.
Only 45 senators in the Republican-controlled 100-seat Senate voted in favor of a procedural step needed for consideration of the stop-gap funding bill to fund federal agencies until Dec. 9. Without a continuing resolution, or CR, many federal agencies will run out of money when the federal fiscal year ends at midnight EST on Friday (0400 GMT Saturday).
via CNBC