Congress Avoids Government Shutdown

March 1, 2024 5:22 am

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress has passed another short-term spending measure that would keep one set of federal agencies operating through March 8 and another set through March 22. The extension averts a shutdown for parts of the federal government that would otherwise have kicked in at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. The bill now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. The short-term extension is the fourth in recent months. Lawmakers are voicing increased optimism that it’ll be the last before Congress approves two separate spending packages totaling more than $1.6 trillion for the full fiscal year. The renewed focus on this year’s spending bills doesn’t include a separate effort to provide military aid to Ukraine and Israel.